We at Garbett Homes pride ourselves on being one of Utah’s most forward-thinking homebuilders. Whether it’s through our water conservation efforts by localscaping, or reducing a home’s carbon emissions by transitioning to all-electric operations. We are continually seeking ways we can bring innovation to the Utah housing market. However, sometimes, innovation doesn’t come from looking forward, but looking back to the past and asking “why did we stop doing that?” This exact line of thinking is what led us to one of the options we’re the most excited about in our upcoming single-family communities in Murray, the much-anticipated single family phase of The Gallery, and Waterstone. Basement Apartment ADUs. Read on to learn more about this exciting new coming to these communities.
What Are ADUs?
ADU stands for Auxiliary Dwelling Unit or Ancillary Dwelling Unit and describes a complete additional housing unit on a lot containing a single-family home. While you might not be familiar with the technical term you’ve probably heard of Mother-In-Law suites or Basement Apartments among other terms for this type of housing. You may have even lived in one! Like we said previously, while this type of “missing middle” housing sounds new it’s been around for a long time. And helped increase housing supply in the past.
Who Uses ADUs?
As some of the names ADUs go by suggest, many were built to help aging relatives live independently while staying close to family that could help them with health issues, mobility issues, or just save on the costs of living. But even then they were also used by so many other types of people. The newlywed couple that wants to save on housing but also wants privacy. Your child that has their first job and is starting to learn how to live independently. A new college grad just getting their feet under themselves at their first job. All have benefited from an ADU.
Why Own a Home With an ADU?
There are many reasons to own a home with an ADU! It can be a great way to help cover some of the costs of a mortgage. You might be able to generate extra income. You might even be able to boost your property value if the ADU stays well taken care of. The possibilities of what an ADU can offer you are endless.
What Are The Downsides?
Even though regulations around ADUs have loosened in Utah, it can still be difficult to renovate an existing home to include an ADU. Which can be a reason to consider buying a new home with the ADU option. If you rent out your ADU there can be the general challenges of landlord and tenant relationships that you may not want to deal with. Depending on the type of arrangement you have with whoever resides in the home, you may have higher utility bills to deal with. But if you use good judgement and have a mind for conflict resolution the benefits can definitely be worth it!
Innovation in housing comes from many places. Including bringing back ideas from the past that have gone by the wayside when it makes sense. We look forward to how this next addition to Garbett Homes’ portfolio will help improve the Salt Lake Valley we call home. If you would like to learn more about our first communities with an ADU option, Waterstone and The Gallery’s single family home phase, please reach out to our new home specialist to sign up for the VIP list at Janie@garbetthomes.com & 801 396 9800 We look forward to hearing from you soon.