[sburl]

Hi there - my name is Spencer and I'm one of the co-founders of Rent the Backyard.

@simonebrunozzi -- great summation of the ADU climate in the US. In California, the government has become even more receptive to ADU in the last few years (https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Are-accessory-dw...)

Our financial model is different than a loan. We use the split from the profits of the unit to make back our money and secure that with a lien on the home. The great thing here is that this lien decreases each year over 30 years until it goes away and you own 100% of the unit and its proceeds.

The great thing about an ADU is that it appreciates the value of your home. We're focused on building long term partnerships with homeowners but if you decide to move before the lien decreases to 0 you can pass the contract to the next homeowner who can continue it to completion. Or you have the flexibility to buy out the contract. When this happens, the increase in value the ADU brings your home can often cancel out or make you money compared to if you didn't have the ADU.

You are right about the potential limits on taking further debt on a home with our agreement and that's a value call each customer will need to make: earn rental income from working with Rent the Backyard, or maximize the access I have to my home's equity.

[simonebrunozzi]

Hey, good to meet you here on HN!

I wish you all the best in your new business. I would be happy to see you succeed.

On the loan part, have you considered offering the ADU as an investment opportunity for private parties? E.g. someone has 100k in cash, can't afford a home, but can invest in the ADU being built by someone else. No loans = less cost, less friction.

Also, the ADU appreciates the value of the home, sure. I think you should find a way to size this appreciation for the home owner (it will be a lot in most cases); it will never be an exact number, but you can do an appraisal for 300-400$ for a few homes, and use the diff to show other clients that it makes a lot of sense to invest in it.

In fact, building an ADU is almost always a great investment. You give up on backyard space, in exchange for rentable real estate. Hard to beat.

[sburl]

Thank you for the kind words :)

We're interested in platforms like Fundrise but really focused on the initial sales process and proving this model with 10 units. The hope is this will make it easier to go to real estate investment platforms and other sites like it.

We have a lot of good info on appreciation in the emails we send to people who are interested in learning more about the product. As we've gone through the launch process, I think this is the thing we've fumbled most. We've been focused on the initial value prop, but the long tail is really valuable too. As we build the website and other public-facing content out, this will be something we prioritize.

We're really thankful for the Hacker News community pushing us hard on this and other points, and bearing with us as we focus on getting the messaging right :)