Lot Read & Photo Set
A walk-through of your property, corners, slope, neighbor sightlines, where an ADU could realistically sit, captured in field notes and photos you'll see in the final report.
ADUs · Know About Them
A written recommendation that tells you what would work best for your property, what it'll realistically cost, and where the constraints sit, before you commit to a design team. It's optional. Most clients still want it.
Why It Matters ↓A surface-level zoning check tells you 10% of the story. A feasibility study reads your specific lot, your municipality's rules, your setback envelope, your slope, and the trade-offs between ADU types, so you start design with a real answer instead of an assumption.
No mid-project "we didn't realize…" conversations. The budget you start with is the budget you end with.
Utility conflicts. Grading needs. Foundation surprises. Easement quirks. Better to know now, when you still have flexibility.
If your lot doesn't pencil, we tell you in week 2, not after $40K in design fees. A "no" you can act on is worth a real number.
When the design starts, it's grounded in real numbers. No "we'll figure that out later" floating around the spreadsheet.
Each feasibility lands on your desk as a single written report. No drawings, no schematics, no construction documents, just a clear, honest read on what would work best for your property.
A walk-through of your property, corners, slope, neighbor sightlines, where an ADU could realistically sit, captured in field notes and photos you'll see in the final report.
Setbacks, height limits, FAR, lot coverage, and overlay constraints (coastal, hillside, historic, fire), worked out for your specific lot in your specific municipality.
Detached vs. attached vs. JADU vs. garage conversion, the option (or two) that would work best for your property, with the trade-offs laid out plainly.
A realistic $/sf range benchmarked for your municipality, padded with a ~20% inflation buffer on materials and labor so the number you plan around holds up. Plus design + permit + build timeline framing.
Emmanuel meets you at the property and walks it, corners, slope, neighbor sightlines, where an ADU would actually sit. The first 30 minutes on the lot tell us more than any report.
Back at the studio, we pull your zoning, easements, and recorded constraints, then run the setback / FAR / lot-coverage math against your specific lot shape.
A realistic $/sf cost range, benchmarked against your municipality, site conditions, and finish-level assumptions. We pad each line with a ~20% inflation buffer so the number you plan around holds up against shifting material and labor prices.
Everything above, bound into a single PDF you own forever, walked through with you in a 60-minute review session. Then you decide what to do next.
Two ways the numbers tend to work out, the cost of skipping feasibility, and the lift in clarity when you don't.
Projects that skip feasibility hit a surprise cost (> $5K) roughly 3× more often. The most expensive ADU line item is almost always the one nobody saw coming.
Median ADU surprise we've helped clients avoid: ~$28K. Worst case we've seen prevented: closer to $65K (a sewer-lateral rebuild discovered during permit). $1,000 of foresight returns ~28× on average.
We never make feasibility mandatory. Here's our honest read on which path fits which situation.
If feasibility is the right next step for you, we'll start it right after. If it isn't, we'll tell you. Either way, you'll know more after 30 minutes than you do right now.