A 480 SQFT Garage Becomes a $130k ADU (Long Beach)

Patricia and her husband Daniel bought their Long Beach 1950s bungalow in 2019. The detached garage in the back was the kind of garage you used as garage-shaped storage: bikes that had not moved in 4 years, two old TVs, paint cans from the previous owner.

California AB-68 made the conversion straightforward. The Long Beach planning department accepted the pre-approved ADU plan set, which saved $9,000 in architectural fees. Permits issued in 9 weeks. Construction took 13 weeks more.

The 480 sqft ADU has an open living-kitchen area, one bedroom (with a code-compliant egress window), one bathroom with a curbless shower, and a stackable washer-dryer in a closet. White shaker IKEA cabinets, butcher block counters, LVP floors throughout. Mini-split for HVAC. A separate gas meter and electrical sub-panel.

Final spend: $128,000. Patricia listed the unit on Furnished Finder the week before final inspection and had three qualified applicants the day after the certificate of occupancy. Renting at $2,400/month furnished. Cash-on-cash yield is 11.6 percent before appreciation.