If you’re interested in paying off your mortgage faster, you’ve probably heard of all kinds of strategies. From cutting back on going out to finding new ways to increase your income, there are dozens of different strategies to keep in mind if you’re truly serious about paying down your mortgage as quickly as possible. That being said, if you’re truly interested in paying off your mortgage fast, you’ll need to come up with a better plan than reducing how much money you spend eating out each month.
While it may seem counterintuitive at first, one way to actually pay off your home quickly is to build an accessory dwelling unit to serve as a rental property. ADUs are more affordable to build than you’d think and have the potential to greatly increase the amount of money you’re able to throw at your mortgage. Here’s how to use an ADU as a creative way of paying off your mortgage quickly without breaking a sweat!
Build an ADU with charm and style
Finding the right expert to help you build your accessory dwelling unit is key if you want it to be usable as a rental property. This is because an experienced ADU construction company like Levi Construction will be able to help you navigate the rules and regulations for ADUs in your county while maximizing design potential for your budget. Many construction companies will even offer free consultations for homeowners interested in learning more about the ADU construction process.
Whether you’re converting an existing garage into an ADU or are building something from the ground up, make sure that you’re putting some personality and style into your future rental. If you’re going to go to the trouble of getting the necessary building permits to construct in the city of Los Angeles, you might as well build a place that is nice enough that it will really appeal to potential renters. The right construction company can create 3D renderings and other schematics to help you fully understand what you’re signing off on.
Price your ADU competitively
If you invest in building a quality ADU in Los Angeles or a similarly high cost of living city, you’ll be able to make the most of your investment in a short manner of time. This is because not only will these locations command a higher price in your monthly rental income, but they will also be in higher demand because of how popular rental properties are in cities like these. As such, if you construct your ADU in a popular area, it’s possible to fill your rental quickly if you price it competitively.
Just because you’re pricing your rental to be occupied doesn’t mean that you need to give it away for nothing at all. The median price of a rental in Los Angeles is $1,360 for a one-bedroom apartment, meaning that even a smaller ADU could easily rent for $1,250 a month plus some form of utility costs. When you consider that the median monthly mortgage payment in Los Angeles is just over $3,000, it’s easy to see how rental income can decrease how long you’re paying your home off by a little over a third!
Market your ADU with the right materials
Regardless of which market you use, you’ll want to have great photographs to accurately represent your ADU. Not everyone understands what a detached ADU looks like compared to a primary dwelling, so taking a few extra photographs is a good idea. Especially if you’re sending things out to a variety of rental listing platforms, you’ll want a way to manage your camera uploads. Having cloud picture backups and a backup of any video walkthroughs can make it easy to share and organize your media, rather than having to search through your phone or computer to send more photos to a renter. Best of all, thanks to using a cloud backup service you’ll know that your media will always stay safe, no matter what happens to your device.
