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Announcer: It’s time to enter the world of real estate in Oahu with Hawaii’s only true real estate radio show “The Team Lally Real Estate Show”. Grab a pen and get ready to take notes. For the next full hour, Hawaii’s premiere real estate leader, Adrienne Lally and Attilio Leonardi will bring you the latest in real estate news and real world strategy on how they can guarantee to sell your home at a price and deadline you agree to or they’ll buy it. Now here are your hosts: Adrienne and Attilio.
Adrienne: Welcome to the Team Lally Real Estate Show. Home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. If you have any questions, just give us a call at 799-9596 or check us out on the web at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Hey, everybody. This is Attilio. I was coloring in my adult coloring book, trying to relax, and this lady comes up to me, taps me on the shoulder, and starts asking me a bunch of tax and legal questions. I said, “Those are great questions. I highly recommend you seek the appropriate licensed professional. And then I said, “But, Mom, wanna check out one of these adult coloring books? They’re very relaxing.” Alright, so if you hear anything on the show that sounds like tax advice, go talk to a CPA. If it sounds like legal advice, go see an attorney. We are going to be edutaining you. What does that mean, Adrienne?
Adrienne: well, you’ll be learning something.
Attilio: While having fun.
Adrienne: And having fun and being entertained.
Attilio: Yeah. That’s like coloring math problems. Learning something while having fun at the same time.
Adrienne: Yes. So, okay, speaking of your adult coloring book.
Attilio: Yeah?
Adrienne: Why don’t you tell our listeners what it is you’re coloring?
Attilio: Alright. So the name of this book is called ‘The Miracle Morning: Art of Affirmations’, and my first coloring page—well, here’s something about affirmations, scientific studies have proven that the way we talk to ourselves is one of the greatest determining factors of our happiness or our health and our success. Affirmations, when done correctly, are one of the most effective tools for programming your mind to become the person you need to be to achieve everything you want in life. So here’s the first page. What did I color it? Did I color it—oh. I think it’s an affirmation I colored. I only got the—I only colored green, so far.
Adrienne: Nice.
Attilio: ‘I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be to learn what I need to learn in order to become the person I must be to create the life I want.’
Adrienne: Now, why did you choose the color green?
Attilio: I don’t know. Good luck? Money?
Adrienne: (laughter) Okay. Well, I have some quotes curtesy of Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Attilio: Home of the rent guarantee.
Adrienne: Yes. Duke sent them in this morning.
Attilio: Mhmm.
Adrienne: And, you know, it kind of ties in with your affirmations here. So this first one is from Thomas Mertin.
Attilio: Oh, good old Thomas.
Adrienne: And he says, “Happiness is not a matter of intensity, but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony.”
Attilio: Cool.
Adrienne: The next one’s from Andrew Carnegie. “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberties”—sorry. “…that commands your thoughts, liberates your energies, and inspires your hopes.”
Attilio: Cool. Super cool.
Adrienne: And the last one, from Shantideva? Who is that?
Attilio: I don’t know. Maybe it’s one of those names like Ivana Tinkle. It’s like not even a real person or anything.
Adrienne: And this one’s about happiness, as well. “All happiness comes from the desire for others to be happy. All misery comes from the desire for oneself to be happy.”
Attilio: Alright. Today’s quotes are brought to you by our producer. His name is Bud Tugley.
Adrienne: No, it’s not.
(laughter)
Adrienne: I said our quotes are form Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Attilio: No, but we have our real producer named Steven Nordstrom.
Adrienne: Steven Storm.
Attilio: Steven Storm. He’s awesome.
Adrienne: Yes, he is.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: Okay. So we do have Duke Kimhan calling in shortly with his—
Attilio: Busy year. He’s not here yet?
Adrienne: Yeah, he’ll be here with his Property Management Tip of the Week.
Attilio: We should have the doorbell sound effect. We don’t do that anymore.
Adrienne: Well, what kind of sound effect should we have for Duke?
Attilio: No. Like anybody who calls in. We do the doorbell thing and then we pretend they’re at the door. “Come on in! Oh, you’ve got some Girl Scout cookies? Thank you. Yes, we’ll buy some.” So anyway, we are—we’ve got a guest on the show today. We want to tell you about it. We’re going to be bringing her on the break.
Adrienne: Yes. She’ll be on after the first break.
Attilio: It’s going to be Janyce from Dream House Drafting. We’re going to be talking about everything about permits, about design, architecture.
Adrienne: ADUs.
Attilio: ADUs. ADUs. That’s what we’re going to be talking about.
Adrienne: Everything you want to know about building, remodeling.
Attilio: Yeah. You know, it’s interesting in our real estate industry here, especially when we’re selling and buying, part of the due diligence of the buyers is to see if everything’s permitted on the property. So we’re going to talk to you about, you know, some top things that you need to be taking a look at as a buyer because there’s tons of properties in Hawaii. Where things – additions – things were made by the uncle who’s a contractor, thinking they’re doing them a favor, but then when it comes time to sell, we’ve got all kinds of headaches we’ve got to deal with. Alright. Did you want to talk about, real quick before we go to the break, are you a leader or a manager? We only gave them the first part. We didn’t give them the meat, we only gave them the—
Adrienne: I wanted to talk about Career Night.
Attilio: Oh, let’s talk about Career Night.
Adrienne: That’s on Monday, October 3rd.
Attilio: That is Monday?
Adrienne: October 3rd.
Attilio: Alright. So today’s Saturday. Sunday, Monday, you still have an opportunity—actually, I think we have, as of right now – Saturday, we have 9 people that have RSVPed. We can’t hold that many people. (crosstalk) So we’re going to downsize the door.
Adrienne: No, there’s—no, we have 9 people that have confirmed and over 20 that have RSVPed.
Attilio: Oh, geez.
Adrienne: So we may even need to move locations.
Attilio: No, you know what we do? We make everybody stand up, and then you can squeeze more people in.
Adrienne: The first people there will get a seat. Standing room only.
Attilio: Alright. So it’s Career Night. Career Night, let’s go ahead and paint words the images or the experience you’re going to have. What time is it from?
Adrienne: I believe it’s from 5 till 6.
Attilio: 5 to 6. Here’s the deal. You know what? Let’s say the RSVP is closed. Just like when I go work out with Orange Theory, and they say the class is full, I show up anyway because people don’t show up.
Adrienne: They’re flakey.
Attilio: They’re flakey, and so I just show up anyway, and I get in every single class that I want. So with this class, even if it’s full and we shut it down, show up. Life happens. People get stuck in traffic. They have reasons instead of results. What’s that? Reasons instead of results? It’s a….
Adrienne: It’s an excuse.
Attilio: No, no, no.
Adrienne: Oh, it’s a BOLD Law.
Attilio: BOLD Law. I’ve got BOLD Laws here. Reasons – you can have reasons or you can have excuses.
Adrienne: Reasons or results. You can’t have both.
Attilio: Success – success is simple, but not easy.
Adrienne: That’s true.
Attilio: So, Career Night, go to what? Jointeamlally.com?
Adrienne: No. I mean, they can go there, too, and apply to be on the team; however, all of our events—
Attilio: Oh, that’s right. Career-something.
Adrienne: If you go to teamlally.com, there is a tab on the top that says ‘Events’.
Attilio: Oh, yep. On the right-hand side.
Adrienne: And it’s going to give you a drop-down menu, and you’re just going to select ‘Career Night’. And you can sign up to attend on Monday.
Attilio: Things we’re going to be teaching you. We’re going to tell you a little bit about the history of Team Lally, and we all started where everybody else started. At zero. And how we go to real brief on that. We’re going to talk to you about educational opportunities. We’re going to talk about—what are we—
Adrienne: What does it take to get a license?
Attilio: What does it take to get a license? Once you do get a license, what kind of questions you should be asking the brokerage of which you’re going to be hanging your license?
Adrienne: What is the day of a typical realtor?
Attilio: And then I have a couple of realtor knock knock jokes I’m going to be sharing with you. I don’t know what they are, but I have to come up with them between now and Monday. But it’s a great time. How we start the class is how?
Adrienne: With—
Attilio: (crosstalk) We go around, everybody introduces themselves, and then what is it?
Adrienne: Everyone introduces themselves, they give us their name, and then their number one question.
Attilio: Number one question.
Adrienne: That they’d like to be answered during our Career Night.
Attilio: So the presentation is going to be geared toward what you want to know as opposed us telling you what we want to tell you. We’re going to tell you what you want to know. Answer those questions. So here’s your opportunity. Come visit. If you’re serious about, I don’t know, reengineering your life, going in a new direction, this is the first step. And it’s a spiral staircase, which means what? Can you jump?
Adrienne: No.
Attilio: What happens if you jump up on a spiral staircase? You hit your head.
Adrienne: One step at time.
Attilio: So there’s the first step in the spiral staircase to success. We are the Siri of the real estate industry. We’re going to tell you how to proceed to the route.
Adrienne: Okay, so speaking of proceeding to the route, let’s give a property management tip of the week because I don’t think Duke’s calling in.
Attilio: Duke’s calling in, well?
Adrienne: He’s not here.
Attilio: We’ve had great experiences with Duke and his team over at Pacific Rim.
Adrienne: No.
Attilio: Not Pacific Rim. Hawaii Pacific. I’m getting all the Pacific sponsors mixed up in here.
Adrienne: Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Attilio: Hawaii Pacific Property Management. Here’s the—
Adrienne: You can check them out. Here’s their website: hipacificpm.com.
Attilio: Alright. Here’s the number one tip. If you rent the property out that you own behind you and move to the main land, Adrienne, what do you need to be aware of? What are you required by law to have?
Adrienne: You’re required to have an on-island representative.
Attilio: On-island representative. You’re required by law to have an on-island representative so if the people need to get a hold of somebody. That’s a big mistake people make. So what they end up doing is having their buddy do it.
Adrienne: Mhmm.
Attilio: Okay. So your buddy’s at work and the tenant’s calling saying the toilet—you’re in a condo, and water is pouring out from behind the toilet and flooding all the units in the stack below them. All the way down to ground level. And you buddy doesn’t get back to you or to them till late in the afternoon. What’s going to happen? A big mess. So that’s why it’s important to have a professional management company managing your property.
Adrienne: So you can give them a call at 445-9223. That’s 445-9223. And see if they’d be willing to interview you and find out if you guys are a good fit.
Attilio: If you’re a good fit, yeah. And what’s their website?
Adrienne: hipacificpm.com
Attilio: Alright. So we’re getting ready to take a break here, but keep in mind Hawaii Pacific Property Management has got a rent guarantee.
Adrienne: They do. If they don’t rent your home in 30 days, they’ll pay the rent.
Attilio: Stay with us.
Adrienne: Give them a call.
[10:05]
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[13:24]
Adrienne: Welcome back. Thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate Show. Home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne.
Attilio: And I’m Attilio.
Adrienne: And if you have any questions just give us a call at 799-9596 or on the web at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Hey, guys, well, before we bring on our guest, let’s talk about recruiting. Are we looking for people to join our team?
Adrienne: We’re always looking for talent.
Attilio: We’re always looking for talent. So real quick, we’re going to read the message here. Go ahead, Adrienne.
Adrienne: So, again, we’re always looking for great team members.
Attilio: Don’t contact us if you’re a mediocre producer, you’ll be wasting your time.
Adrienne: if you’re super uptight, sensitive, your feelings get hurt easily, don’t call us.
Attilio: You must be able to prove you have a personality to be a superstar.
Adrienne: The crazy thing is, we have an 80K guarantee.
Attilio: What did you say? 80K guarantee. What’s that?
Adrienne: If you do everything that we train you to do and don’t make $80,000 in your first full year, we’ll write you a check for the difference.
Attilio: That’s awesome. Here it is, folks, you need to be confident, energetic, and a person who wishes to be part of a fun and fast-paced team.
Adrienne: All lead systems, scripts, coaching are provided and are proven to be the best in the industry.
Attilio: If you’re teachable and looking to work with a high energy team that has a proven track record…
Adrienne: Just go to jointeamlally.com. That’s jointeamlally.com.
Attilio: That’s jointeamlally.com. Alright. We’d like to welcome on to the show (harp music) the angel from above—
Adrienne: Janyce Myrland.
Attilio: Janyce Myrland. She’s with Dream House Drafting. Her phone number, right off the top, 206-7107. Welcome, Janyce.
(doorbell)
Attilio: Come on in.
Adrienne: So Janyce is usually calling in with her tip, and today—
Attilio: She’s in the studio.
Adrienne: We have her in the studio. So welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Janyce: Thanks for inviting me.
Attilio: Sure. So, Janyce, tell us a little bit about yourself. We’ll go local style. Local style. Like where are you from originally?
Janyce: Bronx, New York.
Attilio: Bronx, New York. And what brought you to Hawaii?
Janyce: Well, I had a friend who grew up in Waianae.
Attilio: Oh, wow.
Janyce: And used to invite people to come stay with her family when she’d come back home to visit.
Attilio: Yeah.
Janyce: Her family lived right across the street from Pokai Bay Beach that area, so, you know, it was a great introduction.
Attilio: Is Waianae like the Bronx of Oahu? Maybe? You know, you’ve got all your working people out there and everybody’s just enjoying and living life?
Janyce: I’d say Waianae is a lot varied just like the Bronx is a lot varied.
Attilio: Yeah.
Janyce: So I kind of came from an area that doesn’t really represent what people expect from the Bronx single-family homes, tree-lined streets.
Attilio: Oh, wow. A lot of people have tall high-rise buildings and a lot of people everywhere.
Adrienne: So you started off with coming to visit your friend, so what made you make that big move all the way from the East Coast?
Janyce: Well, it was a shock, you know? New Yorkers they’re known for what they’re known for. So coming to Hawaii, experiencing aloha, mind you this was back in the 80s, so it was like,
“Wow. This is different. Gotta come back and see if I really saw what I thought I saw.”
Attilio: Yeah. Because it’s a different perspective, right, when you’re on vacation versus living here and making a living?
Janyce: Definitely.
Attilio: It’s like that movie. What was that movie? Descendants. I think that was probably the closest move to what it’s really like in Hawaii.
Adrienne: We’ll you’ve lost your New York accent if you ever had one.
Janyce: I don’t think I ever really 100% had one ever. Especially growing up in a household with grandparents (in Caribbean accent) who spoke like this, mon.
Attilio: Yeah. Oh, from Jamaica.
Janyce: Actually, no, they were—
Attilio: Oh, they weren’t from Jamaica?
Janyce: They were not from Jamaica. They were from Barbados.
Attilio: Barbados.
Janyce: And Montserrat.
Adrienne: Oh, wow.
Attilio: So an island community?
Adrienne: So do you speak another language?
Janyce: Not fluently anymore. My ancestors all came from English-speaking places, but I went to schools that required foreign language.
Attilio: Oh, wow. Alright, folks, if you’re just tuning in, we’ve got Janyce Myrland. She’s with Dream House Drafting. You can check out her website dreamhousedrafting.com. Adrienne, what’s the phone number?
Adrienne: It’s 206-7107.
Attilio; You know, so the hot topic this year has been the ADUs. Why don’t we just start out with the hot topic? ADUs.
Adrienne: What is an ADU?
Attilio: What’s an ADU?
Janyce: By definition an Accessory Dwelling Unit.
Attilio: When we talked about it earlier, it’s like—explain it to me like I’m an 11-year-old.
Janyce: Well, if you’re an 11-year-old, let me share with you that grandma’s house is not allowed to have more than one family living there, but now that the law has passed allowing for some special considerations, she can have a second unit on her home that’s completely independent of her house. It can have its own laundry, it can have its own full kitchen, bathroom, etcetera. And she can make some extra money, and it’s all legal.
Adrienne: Nice.
Attilio: So no more people with the hot plates and the microwave? When the inspector comes by, they can have an actual dwelling. What’s the maximum square footage of this second unit and what’s the requirements? Or how does it work?
Janyce: So it depends on the size of your lot; however, if you do have a 5,000 square foot lot, or more, and your zoning is either residential or country – this does not apply to any farm or Ag areas – then you may have an 800 square foot loving space as an added living space.
Attilio: If it’s a lot smaller than 5,000 square feet, then it’s smaller? Less than 800?
Janyce: Yes. There is a two-tiered sizing, so you’re either going to be 400, maximum 800. If you decide you want to be somewhere in between that because you’re allowed to have larger than 400, then that’s fine, but 800 square feet of living space is the maximum. We have researched that because there’s someone who wants to put a unique type of pre-fab unit on their lot as an ADU, and we had to double check because it has the 800 living space, but the way it’s structured, the physicality of the structure’s going to be more, so the city is fine with it so long as it’s 800.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: So if one of your customers wants to put something that’s larger than 800 square feet, then what are the other options for that?
Janyce: Okay. Well, first of all, if we’re sticking with the lot that can’t legally for this provision have a rental, then it’s got to be an ADU, and if they happen to have, in the past, gotten a permit for a rec room or some other area of the home that they want to convert to an ADU and it’s a little bigger than the 800 square foot maximum, that can be considered on a case-by-case basis. The city is doing that.
Attilio: Mhmm.
Adrienne: Nice. So you can get an exception based on—
Janyce: If it was permitted before. Don’t bring in your unpermitted stuff and say, “It’s here.” You know, it’s just a little too big. The answer is ‘eh’ (negative).
Attilio: What about a tiny home? You know, they’re up on these trailers. Is that considered—you’re going to be plugging in, but not really. Has anyone ever come to you with a tiny home?
Janyce: Not yet.
Attilio: Not yet.
Janyce: And I don’t 100% know. That’s something that we’d have to research because, as you know, when you look around and you drive around on the main land, you’ll see people with trailers that are moving, you’ll see double-wides that are nicely planted and landscaped around. So far, that typically has not usually been accepted here in Honolulu County.
Attilio: Gotcha. And what was the motivation for the government to make this provision?
Janyce: As you know, the medium price of a home here has remained above $700,000 for quite a while, so no one’s going to rent you their property valued at $900,000 for what most people would consider to be an affordable rent. So, therefore, they were looking for a means of—
Attilio: Creating more supply.
Janyce; Creating more supply. More affordable housing. There’s also a concern that there’s a lot of potential rentals being used as one-week, two-week vacation rentals.
Attilio: Gotcha.
Janyce: So that kind of also limits the supply.
Attilio: Gotcha. So you said the minimum was 400 square feet. What if I want like some kind of micro-apartment that’s 200 square feet? It’s minimum 400?
Janyce: 400 is kind of like what’s considered—if you think about 400 square feet, that is your typical garage.
Attilio: Gotcha.
Janyce: Okay. 20 by 20. As a matter of fact, most garages are going to be 20 by maybe 22.
Attilio: Okay.
Janyce: So that’s not much space. It makes for a nice little studio, so 400 makes for a good number. But yes, I have done one for someone that was less. They decided they wanted to use the garage bathroom and the enclosed lanai and put a tiny little wall kitchenette there.
Attilio: Okay. Because it’s a big trend in some of these urban cities where they have a high walkability index, and the people don’t own cars, and they have a lot of amenities in the buildings. 2-300 square feet for these micro-apartments to help with affordability. But, you know, you have to sleep standing up.
Adrienne: So, Janyce, typically how long does this process take start to finish?
Janyce: The first thing everybody should understand is don’t go and look up your property and say, “Oh. I have more than enough square footage.”
Attilio: Don’t make assumptions.
Janyce: “I should be able to do one.” This kind of ties in with your questions about the movable.
Adrienne: Tiny homes.
Janyce: The tiny homes.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: Yep.
Janyce: There is something called an ADU Precheck Form. Which must be routed through the departments in the city. They are looking for things like waste water capacity, Board of Water Supply connections, wide enough street, those sort of public facility concerns apply. So that’s the first thing that one needs to get handled.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: So this checklist, where could someone find the checklist?
Janyce: well, they can find it in two place.
Adrienne: Mhmm.
Janyce: If my assistant is done uploading eveyrthing, we have—
Attilio: You know what, forge the other place. The only place they need to find this is at your website. Right?
Janyce: Yes. We are making it available and also in our most recent blog post on ADU Update.
Attilio: ADU Update?
Janyce: Yes.
Adrienne: So that’s at dreamhousedrafting.com?
Janyce: Yes.
Adrienne: Okay. Perfect.
Attilio: Yeah, you what, DPP isn’t in the studio, you are. So it’s your website that everybody has to go to.
Adrienne: And it’s easy. It’s all spelled out.
Janyce: And we have placed it there, and we understand that people are busy and they don’t necessarily want to deal with the building department, s we’ve already customized the form. It does say Dream House Drafting in the Agent Line with our phone number so that the city will call us if they have questions or want anything more once—and we’ve also made it so that it’s got live form fields in the PDF.
Adrienne: Oh, nice.
Janyce: So anyone who want to can just download it, type in their pertinent information, e-mail it to us, call us, and we’ll get them started.
Adrienne: So what, they just have to fill out the checklist and then you guys route it to City and County and they—
Attilio: Or do you fill it out for them?
Janyce: No. Well, in the past, I’ve filled it out for them. We created the live form fields so if they have streets with unique names, this way they could send us the completed form in terms of the upper portion where it says their information, whether they want to have something that’s attached to their home or a completely separate cottage on their lot, they can fill in all of that stuff.
Attilio: So if you’ve got Johnny, and he lives on Humahumanukanuikukuakakui Street, you’re not spending half an hour like, “Huh? Wait. A-U-D…what’s the letters again?”
(laughter)
Attilio: They just pre-fill it out so you can skip past that. So you have the form there, they fill out the owner’s stuff, and you help them with the rest. You know, I’m listening to the people. I know there’s these people out there. This is how I’d look at it. Dealing directly with DPP would be like you go online, you Google ‘brain surgery’ and you do it on yourself. I don’t think it makes sense. You should just hire a professional. That’s my opinion.
Janyce: Well, it is a unique set of circumstances and it takes a while to learn everybody you need to see and every place that you need to go. Also I don’t know if you guys wanted to get into this, but DPP and the city have made some recent changes with reference to ADUs. One of the is that they are waiving the waste water fees, the plan review fees, and the building permit fees.
Adrienne: Wow.
Janyce: When you go to submit your building permit for your ADU. However, they’ve changed something. You can no longer just pay someone to route your ADU Precheck Form through the city departments. You must now also have them provide, along with the form, a site plan of your lot and show where this ADU is going to be because on a site plan, you need to show property lines. You need to show the outline of the existing building, and if you’re going to put a new unit that’s detached, you need to show the outline for that. If it’s going to be attached to the house, you need to show that, also. And they also want a preliminary floor plan for this design. So it means a little bit more work from your design professional to actually get your ADU Precheck going because before it was just the form.
Attilio: Let’s talk about this money savings. I know you and Adrienne talked about it on a show or two ago. How much do we think the saving is?
Adrienne: It was like 8- or 9,000 something.
Attilio: The waiving of the what is it again?
Adrienne: It’s a lot of money.
Janyce: It’s the waiving of the waste water fees, which are an average of $6,000, $6,500. It’s a waiving of the building permit fee which is going to vary depending on what size you’re doing. Building permit fees are a function of usage and square footage, so I believe we came up a little under $2,000. Those plus your waste water fee. And then there’s a plan review fee which is always 20% of the estimated building permit fee.
Attilio: And this is waived effective…?
Janyce: It was waived effective July of this year, and it continues through June 30th of 2018.
Attilio: 2018? Oh, wow. So they have some time, but don’t wait forever because you know, you’re going to get that person calling you in May of 2018, “I need to get this stuff waived!”
Janyce: I’m sure there’ll be a lot of people like that, and they need to realize that an ADU Precheck goes through quite a number of reviews. Separate departments in the building department including the Waste Water and the Traffic Department. So that takes time, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone that they want to get the process started a month prior to the expiration of this special program.
Attilio: Is it the date you submit or the date it’s completed? I don’t know when they would qualify for this.
Adrienne: She’s saying a month prior to the expiration isn’t the best to do.
Janyce: It’s too tight for the simple reason that I have had ADU Precheck due to varying circumstances on properties take anywhere from three weeks to return to three months. So, you know, if you’re going to be—and trying to get your design going in a reasonable fashion, you need to have your ADU Precheck done. I wouldn’t recommend going and spending money for plans, structural engineering, and all that good stuff and then get the bad news that you can’t have it.
Adrienne: Mhmm. Okay, so you have your ADU Precheck, and after that, what is the timeline? Like it comes back after, you know…?
Janyce: So one the ADU Precheck is returned with all the signatures, you’ll notice that – I brought the form with me just so you guys could have one to look at – and the form—
Attilio: Let’s show the form to our listeners. Oh, wait, we’re on the radio. We can’t do that.
Janyce: (laughter) The form becomes void 210 business days after it is signed the last signature on there.
Adrienne: So you have 210 business days to build.
Janyce: Business days to get your building permit and your design work, and get your building permit application in and issued.
Adrienne: Oh, okay. So typically, though, the whole process start to finish, you know, what could somebody expect? Best case and worst case.
Jancye: Allow at least three weeks to a month for your ADU Precheck, and then it’s going to depend on the homeowner an awful lot. When they’re ready to get started, what exactly they want. You know, if they’re altering—if it’s going to be a separate little cottage in that back corner of the backyard, then they probably don’t care as much. But when it’s attached to their home or changing up a portion of their home and perhaps also going to have to change up the other part of the home also to accommodate the main occupants, then that can take time for homeowners to make decisions lots of time.
Attilio: Just to give people an idea, I’m looking at this Precheck form, there’s five different government agencies that this form needs to go through. Just imagine dealing with one, and then do a five multiplier of government agencies. I’m not being a Negative nelly because one of them – number four on here – is the fire department. As you know, my dad was a fire chief, so that’s an awesome department that it should go through. But number one, DPP Customer Service Division. Number two, Waste Water Disposal. Number three, Border Water Supply. Number four, Fire Department. And then it looks like the last one, DPP Roadway Access Review. Next to each one of these departments that they need to go through, there’s a box that says ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. So it like goes in order?
Janyce: Yes. It goes in order, and if number two says ‘No’, the whole thing stops.
Adrienne: Then it stops.
Attilio: Okay. So you’ve got to get a ‘Yes’.
Adrienne: From all five.
Attilio: From all five different government agencies. So, you know what, that falls into a BOLD Law which is right here. ADUs are simple but not easy. No, the quote is actually ‘success is simple….’, but I threw the word ‘ADU’ in there.
Adrienne: So Janyce, what’s the quickest that you’ve been able to get one completed start to finish?
Janyce: I just turned in a Precheck two and a half weeks ago and when I leave here, I’m going to pick up the completed form. They’ve already said that it’s good to go.
Attilio: Awesome.
Janyce: But as I mentioned before, there was another one that took almost three months, and that was because of—
Attilio: Stop and go?
Janyce: Unique things on that property.
Attilio: Yeah.
Janyce: So it’s a [liea?] property in that case. Which then you get into, well, who’s supplying the water and so it’s not straight forward on the water supply, waste water. You also should mention to people who are on properties that are not connected to the city sewer. Please not that you guys have one extra stop on the ADU Precheck just like you would on any other building permit. Your waste water is going to be reviewed by the State Department of Health, Waste Water Branch, and if you do happen to be one of those many properties that still have a cess pool, please know that ADU or any remodifications remodeling of your homes, it’s going to immediately trigger the requirement to upgrade to a septic system as cess pools are no longer legal. They have not been for a while.
Attilio: So if you’re not connected to city sewer system, know that this process is going to take a little bit longer. By the way—
Janyce: And it costs a little more.
Attilio: Speaking of the sewer system, if you’re just tuning in, you’re listening to the Team Lally Real Estate Show home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. I’m Attilio.
Adrienne: And I’m Adrienne.
Attilio: And we’re talking with Janyce Myrland of Dream House Drafting.
(harp music)
Adrienne: I love that music.
Attilio: You should. Everywhere she goes, she brings this harp with her. You know, it’s like she came up the stairs, she’s all sweaty, with this big harp, and wheeled it into the studio. Anyway, her phone number’s 206-7107. Adrienne, what’s the website?
Adrienne: You can check her out at dreamhousedrafting.com.
Attilio: Should we take a break, or do we keep going? What do you want to do?
Adrienne: Well, I have one more question before we go to the break.
Attilio: Do you want to ask it now or later?
Adrienne: I do. I want to ask it now.
Attilio: Okay. Go.
Adrienne: Okay. So as far as the investment, what would a homeowner be prepared to invest in adding an ADU to their home?
Attilio: 400 square feet.
Janyce: Well, 400 square feet. So you’re definitely going to have to have structural stamp. You’re going to have to have a full set of plans. You’re going to have to have routing of those plans. Someone’s going to have to design. So I would think that people should expect to start around $6,000-$6,500, you know for your design work, your structural engineering, your drafting of completed documents to go the city, and permit routing. That’s a good starting number depending on the complexity of your property. If you’re on one of those older properties that the city has no records on, that’s nice, and hopefully it’s a nice property and you enjoy it, and please realize that the city is not going to accept that when I turn in a set of plans. They’re going to say, “We want dimension, demolition, or as-existing plans.” They want to know the size of every window, every door, they want everything to scale, so that means one must go and measure the whole place to create that. So that adds to the cost.
Attilio: Hey, listen up folks, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it and you’d have ADUs all over every square inch of this island. So be thankful that it’s not easy to do and that our government is overseeing that, else we’d just be all super dense population populated here. And if you do it right, I’m going to tell you form the real estate stand point, Adrienne, what’s the benefit of doing it right when it comes time to sell?
Adrienne: Well, they’re not going to have any trouble when the appraiser comes in or, you know, if the buyer has financing. You know, they need to have everything done accurately. The permits need to have been pulled correctly, and—
Attilio: Bottom line, it needs to be permitted. If you have—
Adrienne: It could cause a lot of issues.
Attilio: If you have unpermitted square footage in your home, either attached or unattached, it’s not counted in the appraisal.
Adrienne: That’s right.
Attilio: So it’s like it never exists.
Adrienne: Okay, well, let’s go ahead and a take a short break.
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: And when we come back, we have more questions for Janyce.
Attilio: With Dream House Drafting.
Adrienne: So stay with us.
[36:50]
(Music out)
(Commercial)
(Music in)
[41:07]
Adrienne: Welcome back and thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate Show. Home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne.
Attilio: And I’m Attilio.
Adrienne: And if you have any questions, just give us a call at 799-9596 or check us out at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Alright, we’ve got Janyce Myrland with Dream House Drafting in the house. Her phone number: 206-7107. That’s 206-7107. Check out their website dreamhousedrafting.com. You’ve got a blog on there, and do you have multiple blog articles or is the first one about the ADUs?
Janyce: No, that’s the second one.
Attilio: The second one. What was the first one about?
Janyce: That’s a good question. (laughter) Actually, I have been so busy I had my assistant—I give her subjects, she writes them, and then I proofread them, and we decide when to post.
Attilio: You know what’s on there? It’s a good topic. That’s the topic that’s on there now.
Janyce: I think it was about the importance of getting a building permit and why it’s necessary.
Attilio: Gotcha. All good information.
Adrienne: Now, Janyce, I know that you have lots of stories of building permit sand design.
Attilio: Got any funny ones?
Adrienne: Yeah. Could you share with us maybe like a success story or something that would stand out to our listeners as to why it’s so important to have a professional helping?
Janyce: Well, just a few days ago, one of your team members asked me to help them out with issuing their building permit. They were willing to go down and pay the fee by themselves. The permit was ready to issue, and so I guess whatever was transpiring between their prior design professional, I’m not 100% sure, in any case, everything was dumped on the homeowner. So they went down there and because they’re thinking maybe that they might want to sell their property in the future, they realized that now they need to get a licensed general contractor on their Contractor’s Statement – which is the third page of your permit application – where you say who your plumber is, who your electrician is, etcetera. If you are selling your property, you need to have it be a licensed general; you cannot do an owner-builder if you’re going to be selling within the year.
Adrienne: Okay.
Attilio: Gotcha.
Janyce: Or if you’re doing more than $10,000 value of work on your property, and you plan to rent it out, it should also be a licensed general contractor. So when they said that they were going to do that, and they had the signed Contractor’s Statement, the clerk wanted them to pay a fee and bring in a completely signed Contractor Change Form. But the permit had never been issued, so it really shouldn’t have applied. So they texted me and said, “I’m in front of the clerk. What do I do?” And I said, “I’ll talk to them.” Because I said, “Why are you requiring this when the permit has not been issued yet? They’re here to issue. And they are the homeowner, and they’re telling you who they’re going to use. They have a signed form from that contractor. If the permit was issued, then yes, you must submit a signed form. You must pay the fee.” And it was like, “Oh, no, no, no, we’re not going to do that.”
Attilio: Yeah. It’s like those YouTube videos that shows you how to do ceramic tile, and right at the end, they say, “You know what, but our number one piece of advice is just hire a professional.” Alright, so I don’t know anybody who’d want to go down and deal with DPP. I mean, it’s like being an expert at a car wreck. You know, you don’t want to be an expert at a car wreck. And why do you want to be and expert down at DPP unless you do this for a living? Just hire somebody to go do it for you. Less stress, right, Adrienne?
Adrienne: That’s right. And we recommend Janyce.
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: She is awesome. She makes that stress go away.
Attilio: Yeah.
Janyce: Well, thanks.
Adrienne: That’s why she’s got the harp music.
Attilio: You know, so a big thing that – and we’ve bene doing this for many years like, what have we been doing this, 10 years, now, Adrienne?
Adrienne: 12.
Attilio: 12 years. Okay. I’ll just say 10-12. I’m just going to start saying 10-12 from now on. Anyway, it’s taken a lot of years to find somebody who can help you with permits after the fact. And there’s a lot – I know realtors listen to the show, so you might want to give Janyce a call if you’re in a situation where you have, obviously, unpermitted construction anywhere on the property either attached or detached. You guys, correct me if I’m wrong, Janyce, you can kind of go in and—
Adrienne: You can unravel that mess.
Janyce: Well, basically, we started a whole second company to find and document these messes because of realtor requests for after the fact building permits.
Attilio: Yep.
Janyce: And we found very quickly that not only are unique things being done, there’s unique types of construction and we need to tell the city everything that’s there.
Attilio: Yes.
Janyce: They’re not going to allow us to only document some of it. We have to tell them all of it. Sometimes some of the things that have been done cannot have a building permit, so they have to be demolished.
Attilio: Gotcha. Well, so it’s good to know that especially I highly recommend people, you know, that’ll probably be something if you’re thinking about selling, you know, if you’re unsure or if you think there’s unpermitted construction on your property, you might want to take a look at a permit check. What’s you guy’s website for that?
Janyce: So that is permit-check.com. And we have a form there that you can fill out, and it comes automatically into both myself and a licensed general contractor. We set up for permit checkup inspections, and we go down to the city. We get any plans available. We get permits. We walk around the property and compare it to what the city’s documents say. Take measurements and tell you can you keep what you have? Does it meet code? Will it need changes? And what will it cost for an after the fact billing permit? What will the city charge for permit fees, plan review fees? And inform them of the fact that in most cases, you’re going to need some remedial construction.
Attilio: Alright. So, if their plans say one story and you see a second story, you’re like, “Hey, this second story is—the city doesn’t know that you have a second story on your house.”
Janyce: That is no exaggeration. That exists in Makakilo, I have seen it with my own two eyes.
Attilio: Oh, wow. The invisible second floor. Alright. So we’re going to thank Janyce for being on the show and get to our callers.
Adrienne: Yes. We have some open houses and coming soon listings that we’ve got to get to before our show comes to an end.
Attilio: So if you’re just tuning in, we’ve had Janyce Myrland of Dream House Drafting. She’s been on the show and talking about permits, taking about ADUs. Go to her website. Adrienne, again, what’s that website?
Adrienne: That’s dreamhousedrafting.com. She’s got some helpful blogs on there that explains what’s an ADU, the importance of building permits.
Attilio: And what’s her phone number?
Adrienne: You can reach her at 206-7107.
Attilio: Okay. We’ve mentioned it about 98 times, so if you call us and ask what’s her phone number and her website, we will shoot you. No. we’ll give it to you anyway. We’ll be nice.
Adrienne: Alright. So we have Mike on the line to talk about his open house.
(doorbell)
Attilio: Mike, come on in. Tell us about your open house.
Mike: Hi, guys. Great show.
Adrienne: Thank you.
Attilio: Thanks.
Mike: I’m very happy and privileged that I’ll be sitting at a very unique property in Nuuanu. Guess what guys? It’s for that right person who’s looking for a penthouse.
Attilio: Penthouse. Living large.
Mike: Penthouse!
Attilio: Penthouse.
Mike: Come visit me at 2040 Nuuanu Avenue. Look for our sign. And you will need to call me up because I’m going to be up there. There’s unobstructed views of downtown, the [Colause?], and it’s just fabulous. You guys have got to check it out.
Adrienne: And this one, I think, just had a big price adjustment. So, it’s a great opportunity.
Mike: Yes. The price improvement, great opportunity for the right person. Come visit me at 2040 Nuuanu Avenue. Give me a call. I’ll bring you up. Very secure building. Your own key to your brand-new penthouse.
Attilio: Yeah.
Mike: Private.
Attilio: Private. Super private. The whole top floor. Alright just Sunday 2-5?
Adrienne: Sunday 2-5.
Mike: 2-5!
Attilio: Alright.
Mike: Sunday 2-5. Look for the Team Lally sign.
Adrienne: Okay.
Attilio: Alright. Thanks, Mike.
Adrienne: Thanks, Mike.
Attilio: Call him. He’ll be sitting by the phone singing, “I’m all alone by the telephone.” Call him so he can bring you up.
Adrienne: Alright. Next we have Brooks on the line to talk about his coming soon listings.
(doorbell)
Attilio: Brooks, are you there?
Brooks: Hey, guys. How you doing?
Attilio: Good.
Adrienne: Doing great.
Attilio: Tell us about your coming soon.
Brooks: You guys are good. Okay. So I’ve got this property. I’ve talked about it before on our show, and it’s the one that I really like. It’s going to be going live on October 10th.
Attilio: Uh-huh.
Brooks: We’ve got just a couple weeks left yet. This is that Spinakker Place townhome in Ocean Pointe.
Attilio: Yes.
Brooks: It’ll be a really, really nice area. Really nice townhome. And what I like about it is that the unit is so well put together, and it is so immaculately maintained that you don’t even feel like anybody’s been living there. And it has really nice luxury appointment. It’s just a phenomenal starter home for somebody that’s looking to start in the under $500,000 range. So it’s a beautiful home.
Attilio: Alright.
Brooks: And that’s about it. I’ve got others that we can wait for next week, the radio show for those.
Attilio: Hey, Brooks, I’ve got a question for you.
Brooks: Yes?
Attilio: How many years have you been in the industry?
Brooks: 18.
Attilio: 18. I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but why, after all these years, why did you join Team Lally?
Brooks: I joined Team Lally because of their track record and your success rate is phenomenal. I was so impressed. I want to be a part of a successful team, and I sure am a part of this successful team. And I have been very successful on this team.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: Yeah. Brooks is on fire.
Attilio: He’s on fire!
Adrienne: He’s been meeting with clients almost every day.
Attilio: Yeah. And what’s been your experience now being in the trenches?
Brooks: I’m sorry, what was that?
Attilio: What’s been your experience now that you’ve been in the trenches actually working?
Brooks: It’s a phenomenal experience. It’s very invigorating. It’s constantly on the move. There’s a lot of stuff going on. I am very much in the business and I’m current. I’m alive. What can I say? My experience recently has just been phenomenal.
Attilio: What would you say to some superstar out there that’s thinking about making a move?
Brooks: Well, they’ve got to talk to me, for sure. I think one of the things that’s important about us is that not only are we very successful – and I say ‘we’ loosely because I’m riding your guy’s coattails, thank you very much, by the way, for letting me come on board. But the other part of it is that this is a team. We’re all friends. There’s no egomaniacs here that get in the way. It’s light and nice. Attilio’s funny. Adrienne is lovely. It’s just a beautiful experience.
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: Well, except for when we’re doing our go-kart racing. It’s all on.
Attilio: That is like take no prisoners.
Brooks: Oh, yeah.
Attilio: Run you off the road.
Brooks: There is another side to Adrienne when it comes to go-kart racing.
Attilio: The go-kart guy is waving the flag like stop bumping. We get the dumb ‘Stop Bumping’ flag comes out a lot.
Adrienne: (laughter) Sorry.
Attilio: Alright. Well, hey, though, speaking of that go-kart race, the winner, Team Lally’s fast and furious. He gets to hold onto the trophy until we do it again was Howard Net.
Adrienne: That’s right.
Brooks: Whoa!
Attilio: With a speed of—
Brooks: Does he know that? I’ll have to bug him.
Attilio: Yeah. He was out there.
Adrienne: And he had the trophy.
Attilio: He won the trophy.
Brooks: That’s awesome. Well, you guys do win a lot; I’ll go pat him on the back for that. Good job.
Attilio: He got the cash prize. 19.3 seconds on the fastest lap. Alright, thanks, Brooks.
Brooks: Yeah.
Adrienne: Okay. And now we have Ray real quick with a coming soon listing. Are you there, Ray?
(doorbell)
Attilio: Come on in.
Ray: Hello.
Adrienne: Hello.
Ray: I’m here. Can you hear me?
Attilio: Yes.
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: Go ahead.
Ray: Awesome. I have a listing in townhome sin Ocean Pointe. It’s actually going to be coming on the market today in the mid-500 range.
Adrienne: Nice.
Ray: Three bedrooms, single family townhome. Three bedrooms, two bath. It’s actually totally done up inside. Beautiful location. I had multiple neighbors come and knock on the door saying, “Hey, they had buyers looks in that area.” So I’m sure it’s going to be a hot item.
Attilio: Alright. Thanks, Ray.
Adrienne: Thanks, Ray.
Ray: No problem.
Adrienne: Alright. Thanks for listening and thank you to our sponsors.
Attilio: Gabe Amea and Jim Owens of Hawaii VA Loans.
Adrienne: Bradley Maruyama of Allstate Insurance.
Attilio: Jodie Tanga with Pacific Rim Mortgage.
Adrienne: Nathan Baker of Pillar to Post.
Attilio: Ben and Tony Mamul with AAA Roofers.
Adrienne: Janyce Myrland of Dream House Drafting.
Attilio: John Speed with Kilauea Pest Control.
Adrienne: Duke Kimhan of Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Attilio: If you want to get a hold of any of these sponsors, just go to teamlally.com.
Adrienne: We want to give a big thank you to, Steven, our producer here in the studio.
Attilio: Chee-hoo!
Adrienne: Make sure to tune in next week. We’ll have an awesome guest talking about something that will change your life–
Attilio: Forever. This is the Team Lally Real Estate Show. Home of the guaranteed sold program.
Adrienne: If we can’t sell your home at the agreed upon price and/or time frame, we’ll have it bought for cash.
Both: Thanks and Aloha!