Feasibility Consultations

As early as possible! The goal of the consult is to make sure you have a deep understanding of the best ADU options for you given your goals and budget objectives. Doing so will save you time and resources in the long term. If you’re already far along in the process with a designer or architect, you may no longer need an ADU Feasibility Consult – instead, just reach out to us if you have questions along your ADU journey.

Any Marin homeowner who completes the questionnaire, is eligible to build an ADU or Junior ADU or their parcel, and who indicates that they can reasonably expect to build given their projected budget and costs. As these consultations are subsidized by a nonprofit, we want to ensure that we provide our consults to homeowners who are likely to follow through on concrete action steps to build their ADU. ADU Feasibility Consultations are provided for new ADU builds, not for assessing already existing, unpermitted ADUs. If you have an unpermitted ADU, your local jurisdiction will have a process for working with you to get your ADU up to code.

Yes, if you have confirmed that you can build on your current septic system or are able to upgrade it as needed for an ADU! If your house is on a septic system, please contact the local septic agency to find out if you can add an ADU to your property before scheduling your ADU Feasibility Consultation.

The ADU Feasibility Consult does three things:

1. Our ADU expert conducts background research on your parcel and the local rules in your city or county to determine whether your property is eligible to build an ADU. Usually, the answer is Yes!
2. Our ADU expert conducts a 1-hour Zoom meeting with you to discuss your goals in building an ADU and to identify site-specific characteristics of your parcel that will guide our ADU recommendations for you.
3. Our ADU expert will write up and give you an ADU Feasibility Report that details your unique ADU goals and our customized ADU recommendations for your parcel. It will explain the ramifications of your parcel’s characteristics and the local city or county ADU rules that apply to your parcel. It will also include concrete information and resources for you to take the next steps on your ADU journey!

The ADU Feasibility Report you receive will contain a comprehensive list of next steps for you to take, including directing you to our list of vetted vendors, including designers, architects, builders, prefab companies and more. From there, you can request bids from those vendors (or any others of your choice not on the website) to continue the next stage of your ADU project!

All we ask if you receive an ADU Feasibility Consult from us is that you agree to complete a few short surveys from the ADU Center afterwards — one right after you receive the report, and another in the months to come — so that we can learn more about your ADU journey so that we can continue to improve our nonprofit services to help more homeowners in the future.

Absolutely! We will always be here to answer your questions at no cost throughout your ADU journey. We’re also constantly developing new educational resources for homeowners, including our ADU workbook, ADU calculator, city rules, newsletter, blog, webinars, and more.