When a California law to ease regulations on accessory dwelling units passed in 2017, Caitlin Bigelow saw it as the flash of inspiration she had been looking for.
She wanted to start her own business.
The legislation, “and they’ve passed several bills since” as she puts it, was “a total game-changer for California real estate” and the impetus for Maxable, the consulting group she founded in 2018 to guide homeowners through the process of building an ADU.
While homeowners already could add an ADU to their properties under existing laws, the newly signed Senate Bill 9 aims to increase housing production statewide. Under the new law effective in January, property owners can build up to two duplexes on a single-family lot — provided it meets certain criteria.
Many homeowners derided SB 9, fearing their neighborhoods would become overcrowded with duplexes, but Bigelow said the panic is likely overblown.
“People said the same thing about ADUs, and it has not happened,” she says.
ADUs, also known as granny flats, are miniature dwellings of up to 1,200 square feet that come complete with a kitchen, bathroom, living space and entrance separate from the main house. They start at $100,000 and can take about a year to complete.
While they’re common today, they were “huge unknowns for people” when the law passed.
“There was no available data online, no example projects,” says Bigelow, who set out to learn everything she could about ADUs.
She converted the garage at her mom’s San Diego house into an ADU. When finished, she opened it up to the public for a few hours one weekend and was surprised by the outcome.
“We had over 200 people come from as far away as Los Angeles to see what a garage conversion looks like,” she recalls. “That solidified it for me. There was a real need for information about how to do this.”
Q: Can you tell me about your mom’s garage conversion?
A: The house was built in the 1940s. The garage was detached and it had a little tiny granny flat attached to it, which was original to the house. It was so small that it didn’t even have a kitchen. It had a tiny bathroom with a shower, sink, and toilet, a closet, and that was it. For that to be built was unusual, but that was why my parents bought the property. The idea that they could have this little income-generating unit on the property and not have to do anything, for them it was a game-changer.
I grew up seeing the benefits it brought to our family.
Later, when my mom worked as a freelance journalist, she transitioned it into her home office. She used it for decades. But we converted the entire garage, including that little tiny 200-square-foot space, into a one-bedroom ADU.
Q: What does it take to make a garage livable?
A: It’s a major construction project. I think when people hear garage conversion, they think, Oh, let’s put up some drywall and flooring and throw in a kitchenette. You gut the garage and take everything down to the studs. You cut into the concrete to run plumbing. It’s not a DIY weekend kind of thing.
You might have to do structural engineering work to bring it up to code. So, there’s a lot of complexities that homeowners don’t necessarily know to ask about, and that’s part of our role.
Q: How does Maxable help homeowners?
A: We offer free site evaluation services on our website. So, homeowners can come in, give us information about their project goals, their budget, their property, and then they can meet with one of our consultants. The consultants will walk them through some of the basics about what they need to know. We can’t give you an exact estimate, but we can share a lot of data. I mean, we’ve helped hundreds of homeowners complete projects.
After we narrow down the scope of your project and if you feel confident in moving the project forward, we introduce you to different design and general contracting firms to get it done. We work with designers, lenders, general contractors, prefab companies. We can make introductions based on your specific project goals and who we have in our vetted network.
Q: Is there a fee?
A: It doesn’t cost the homeowner anything to use our service. We have partnership agreements with all of these companies, so they refer us a small fee back if the project starts. We’re doing a lot of that initial research and groundwork that that firm would have to do anyway.
So, there’s a time/cost savings there.
Q: What reasons do people give for wanting an ADU?
A: They’re building them for family members as the No. 1 reason and rental income as a close No. 2, and I would say that the two are not mutually exclusive. You’ve got a garage. Why not convert it and rent it out for X number of years? When mom is ready to age in place or retire, she can move into the space. That can bring a lot of peace of mind. If there is anything we learned last year during COVID, life can throw you curveballs.
ADUs can help weather those curveballs because they’re such flexible spaces.
Q: You called the 2017 ADU law a game-changer. How so?
A: There are over 540 different jurisdictions in the state of California. Prior to the law change in 2017, every jurisdiction had its own ADU ordinance and mandates. Generally, the requirements made it extremely difficult to build one of these units. We analyzed properties in Southern California and found only about 5% could have built an ADU before some of these legislative changes.
What the law did was remove all of the barriers these jurisdictions set up.
It said, ‘OK, look, we need more housing in the state of California. ADUs are low-hanging fruit. They put development in the hands of homeowners. We want to encourage it so we are passing a bill that says your local ordinances are all null and void, and here are the new state standards.’
Local jurisdictions are still encouraged to pass their own ADU ordinance, but it has to comply with state standards.
Q: Are some cities more encouraging than others?
A: I would say Southern California is a lot more encouraging of ADUs than the Bay Area, even prior to the legislation changes.
Q: What do you say to critics of SB 9?
A: The passage of SB 9 illustrates we’re in desperate need of housing. Housing bills, in general, tend to be unpopular because the people most threatened by them are homeowners. Homeowners tend to influence what gets developed in particular neighborhoods because real estate is a big part of people’s wealth.
At Maxable, we only focus on accessory dwelling units currently. ADUs put development in the hands of individual homeowners in a way that feels very sustainable. It’s incremental. It’s not like entire neighborhoods are going to shift overnight. This is an opportunity for homeowners to generate income, create flexibility, and increase property values because of that extra unit despite all the nervousness.
Q: Do you plan to expand your consulting work outside of California?
A: Eventually. For now, we’ve got our hands full with opportunities here. I feel passionate about what I do, and our team feels very passionate about the impact we’re making to help families navigate the process.
Q: How can people find you?
A: MaxableSpace.com is the best way to find our tools and resources. But I’m partial to our YouTube Channel where we do lots of home tours and share FAQs and educational videos. It’s just YouTube.com/maxable. So, that’s a great resource for people as well.
Caitlin Bigelow at a Glance
Title: Co-founder and CEO
Organization: Maxable
Residence: San Francisco
Education: Bachelor’s in entrepreneurship and Spanish from Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa.
Previous work experience: Digital marketing and e-commerce for the toymaker, Rokenbok
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