Walkout Basement Apartment

16 years ago

How many folks here rent a basement apartment? I'm getting ready to build and plan on building a house with a finished walkout basement with 2 bedrooms/2 baths and plan on renting this out. Just want someones opinion on what they think/exp. of a basement apartment. I do plan on having extra insulation between the basement and first floor for both parties.

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Comments (13)

lucy
16 years ago
I would check with your municipality whether such a rental is allowed - they're not always, and could get you into trouble if you don't have the right permit, etc.
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robin0919
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks, but I don't think that will be a problem here. People rent out their rooms and basements here all the time.
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I don't have a copy of the basement floor plan. However, it did come with the house plan and it was so well done, that we made very few changes. The only rooms that do not have windows are the play room and the bathrooms--which is fine by me. The basement windows are large and to the south. We also have tall ceilings down there and it does not seem like a basement at all. The house is 3500 sq ft, so not as big as you may have thought--although certainly big enough. We finished 3000 sq ft in the basement. We don't really need the upstairs great room either, but surprisingly we do use it. I have my baby grand in there and it has NO television. I do love my home. I wanted a home that was elegant but not pretentious, like so many new homes in my area. It took us about a year to build and we had a terrific building experience with the best builder I could have hired. We did time and materials, which I know is frowned on here--but for us it worked out well.
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The OP did not mention placing bedrooms in the basement. He asked about costs of a 1-story house with a basement vs a 2-story house with a basement. I stand by my original comment that a 2,000 sq ft basement will cost more to construct than a 1,000 sq ft basement. Of course, once the larger basement is constructed, the owner will have more living space in the 2,000 sq ft finished basement than in the 1,000 sq ft finished basement. To further your unrelated discussion, here where I live in Northern NJ, we have a lot of steep lots that lend themselves to walk-out basements. One of my favorite houses is on a steep lakefront lot. It’s a ranch and the master bedroom suite is located on the main level along with the open floor plan living room/dining room/kitchen, plus a powder room. The walk-out basement features two additonal bedrooms a full bath and another living room. Its a 3 bedroom house and 100% of the living space has windows with specatacular views overlooking the lake! The main level features a large deck across the entire width of the house overlooking the lake. Below the deck is a patio that also overlooks the lake and is accessible from the second living room in the walk-out basement. I love it! The basement absolutely DOES NOT feel like a basement! The space not overlooking the lake is used for other non-living space functions. On the main level there is an attached garage on the street side. In the basement, there are mechanical rooms and storage rooms on the street side which is underground. 100% of the living space has lake views, INCLUDING the rooms in the basement.
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I'm not sure of the intracacies of your plan, but in any case, it doesn't appear like you'll have much opportunity to correlate a seamless design with the upper story. However, I wouldn't be so concerned here. I think if you can limit the focus on the garage door wall facade, and direct focus to a more substantial facade in-line with the posts, which then focuses attention upwards towards the 2nd story - if that is achieved you can do anything on the garage door wall face you want. So here could be a method to doing that - symmetry is not a goal in itself, but here it is a good solution because the deck beam supporting post locations make a mismash soup of the strong upper floor roof, post, and window symmetry. Since they can't be moved, making sense of the locations with faux columns while directing attention upwards makes the back wall more transparent.
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Tell him to provide a proper slope and to be done correctly because his "halfway" fix is not working.
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airforceguy
16 years ago
When I resided in Victoria BC, many people did that. By the books it normally illegal,but the city sort of looked the other way as there wasn't enough "legal" apartments. BUT sometimes problems did arise and the city was forced to act. What the normal problem was --parking!! To many vehicles for the area, thus no parking. So people in the neighborhood would complain, etc!
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airforceguy
16 years ago
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=4982c310-0b38-4570-9a25-0bc50b228557&k=63901

Speak of the devil!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Illegal suites
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seneca_nyc
16 years ago
my advice is the same as above - you need to check the local or zoning regulations. In NYC people "do it all the time" here too but it's still sometimes illegal. I think sometimes it has to do with "means of egress" which means the people who live there have to be able to vacate safely in the event of a fire. Other times it may be zoning regulations that say a certain zone can only have single-family dwellings. It would pay to check it out so that you don't get shut down later and have all those renovations to pay off with no rental income.
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moonshadow
16 years ago
Another suggestion to follow your local code - someone's going to be doing inspections on the building as it's constructed, right? I'm curious what the plan is on how to separate the upper and lower 'units'. Permanently (via a wall), or 'optional', via a door? And will that not be a red flag to a building inspector?
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User
16 years ago
Robin, what is done in old structures and what you build today are completly different beasts. What is already done is usually granfathered in.

Find out the code on new construction. What you think, might have changed at the last city/county meeting.
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robin0919
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi moonshadow!

It will have regular stairs between the floors. It'll be locked on the first floor. I don't plan on renting this out to just anyone. I'll be VERY picky about who I rent it to. Someone maybe like a single mom that doesn't want to be in an 'apartment' but a neighborhood where their child can play with other kids in the neighborhood and also have a backyard to play in. That's a runon sentence......:)
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marge727
16 years ago
May I suggest that you get somebody who has good credit, and a past good relationship with their last landlord. Also somebody who can afford to pay rent. Because if you don't--you can have a nightmare under your roof really fast. That is especially true if your unit is not built to the current code. You want to look for somebody that will not move extra people in that you have not okayed. You want somebody that is not planning on partying a lot. Those are Your goals. Don't look at what a tenant might appreciate, because you might guess wrong. Most landlords start out very idealistic--that rubs off real fast.
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User
16 years ago
Robin why did you ask? You only read what you want to hear.

Check your municipality and see what the codes are for new construction multi housing. Check with your insurance company also about rentals.

You don't get it. If a tenant or even a guest of the tenant gets hurt on your property, you better have your Ts crossed and your I's dotted in non erasable ink.
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talley_sue_nyc
16 years ago
and if your tenant, or your tenant's friend, or your neighbor, gets p.o.'d at you, they'll call the city, and if your rental apt. is not to code, within the restrictions of the zoning laws, you'll be in big trouble.

Just because your neighbors are doing it doesn't mean it's legal, and it may not be worth the risk. KNOW what those risks are.

And I'm w/ Marge: worry less about how you are helping someone w/ that apartment, and more about how stable they are going to be as tenants. This is even MORE important if you live in the building as well.
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robin0919
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the info. I had planned on cking into most of those before renting. Any weekend here, you can pick up a paper and there are columns of adds for renting just rooms or basements(Charlote area). But I will ck with the local gurus before doing anything. I do know that home owner insur. does cover anyone getting hurt on your property.

Good advice marge....
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airforceguy
16 years ago
Also keep in mind with insurance companies, if they can find a way out of paying you,they will. So if they found out if the one injured was residing in a illegal suite (not saying ur is or isn't) well there could be a way out for them not to pay up! Best of luck
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Walkout Basement Apartment

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Walkout Basement Apartment

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