January 17, 2025 • 23 mins
Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Paul Dashevsky.
America's leading provider of resources for building Granny Flats, Guest Suites, Tiny Houses, and other ADUs. Today's Tiny Homes to Live in for Adults provide a stylish, fully furnished capsule house experience. Designed with comfort in mind, it’s perfect for anyone seeking a modern, compact home.
Serial entrepreneur, real estate investor and angel investor Paul Dashevsky is Co-Founder/Co-CEO of Maxable.com – the ADU property design / build / construction resource website – and also GreatBuildz.com, a resource to find highly vetted residential/home contractors for real estate remodeling and other property improvement projects. Dashevsky has several decades of experience in the construction and renovation business. Having personally built and renovated over 350 homes, he encountered the frustrations that arise when contractors fail to meet expectations. Paul’s determination to solve this major pain point inspired him to start GreatBuildz. Paul holds a B.A. in Economics from UCLA and a Masters in Real Estate Development from USC.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Rashaan McDonald, a host of weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own. If you
want to be a guest on my show, please visit
our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click the b a
guest button. Fill out the information to us, submit and
(00:23):
it comes directly to me. Now, let's get this show started.
My guess is a serial entrepreneur and authority on taming homes.
They're officially called accessory dwelling units. Now well, Amazon is
now selling a two story tiny home for under fifty
thousand dollars, complete with bacconies and picture windows. Can you
believe that my guess is personally built and renovated over
(00:45):
three hundred and fifty homes and encounter the frustrations that
arise when contractors failed to meet the expectations.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Buckle up, it's tiny home time. Please.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Paul Dryshevski. How you doing, Paul?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Thank you, Thank you for having me. Rashan. Great to
be with you.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Okay, Paul, I got to get this question that accessory
dwelling units when it stop being tiny homes.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Man, tiny homes works so many brother.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, well you and I were talking about that. I
like tiny homes. I like granny flats. That was good marketing.
Now they're accessory dwelling units, which is a mouthful. So
let's call them ad us. We call them ADUs out
here in California.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Okay. Cool.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Now I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia, and I've been aware
of Tony Holmes for years. I remember I was in Houston,
where I'm also living. Houston in twenty seventeen. They was
creating tiny home communities, you know, really creating modern community.
Tell me the history if you can of tiny homes
and why you know, we can look at the price tag,
(01:45):
but why are they why people are like finding it.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I'm comfortable with living in the tiny home space.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Now, I mean here on the West Coast, and really,
this is this is happening all over the country. The
governments really want to find housing alternatives, right, we want
to densify housing, we want to bring housings too expensive.
We want options for all sorts of folks. And so
(02:11):
they said, really, anyone in the state here can build
a second home on their property. And that never used
to be the case. You were never allowed to build
a second home on your property because that, you know,
that densifies everything, that creates a duplex in a sense.
Now everybody can do it, and that's a big deal
because that provides all sorts of folks a great place
(02:32):
to live because they are small, right, they are tiny homes.
A lot of what we see being built are six hundred,
seven hundred and eight hundred square foot homes. Great for singles,
great for couples, great for retirees that don't need their
large home anymore. All the home builders they're building these
big homes, two twenty five hundred, three thousand square foot homes,
which is great, great for families, but lots of people
need other options, smaller type homes. And so that's why
(02:56):
I think this has become a trend.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
OK.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I would tell you my fair first apartment was seven
hundred square feet.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It was one of those.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Split It was a studio, but it had a wall
in it, and I was very very comfortable living in
seven hundred square feet when I think about it. So
for you, you saying that a tiny home is six
hundred square feet. That sounds douable. In my mind, doesn't
seem like because I think that the word tainy kind
of makes it seem like it really is a small space,
(03:23):
but it really is a liver space because I was
very comfortable living in seven hundred square feet.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, for sure, I mean that's a good size apartment.
We're seeing them anywhere from one hundred and fifty square
feet real small, right all the way up the state
here allows up to twelve hundred square feet. Oh so
when you say tiny, you know, twelve hundred square feet
is not tiny. That's a house.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, my first home was fourteen hundred square feet.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
That was a two bedroom, one bath.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I'm just giving people contexts when you start using the
word tiny homes of eighty us that they're called now,
is that when you talk talking about seven hundred square feet,
I've lived that my third first apartment you're talking about
would you say eleven hundred homes of what? Twelve twelve
hundred my very first house and I was with a
one bed with a one car garage. I had a
(04:10):
That was my first house. So have you ever my
friend lived in a tiny.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Home I have never lived in the tiny home.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Okay, so you are an authority. What excites you about
talking about tiny homes? And we're going to get to
the fact that Amazon is now selling them for under
fifty thousand dollars, But I really want to get into
the whole live aspect and then also the design and
plus you've renovated over three hundred and fifty homes in
your career, talk to us about tiny homes.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
So we started this company five six years ago called Maximle.
And this company is online and it's a resource for
anything and everything, accessory dwelling units, tiny homes, granny flats. Right,
if someone's thinking about it, I know you were talking
about your daughter thinking about it. Someone's thinking about it,
the first thing they need to do is research, because
it's still a house, right, It's still a home, whether
(05:03):
you buy it from Amazon or you build it yourself.
It's no joke. You're not building a Lego kit here.
So you need to know what you're doing, how to
design it, what it costs, how to finance it. So
that's what my company Maxwell does. Now what gets me
so excited about it is the use cases. So a
second home in your yard. A tiny home in your
yard can be used for so many things. We have
(05:25):
lots of clients coming to us. Some of them, about
fifty percent, will say, I want to build a home
in my backyard, an a du to rent because I
want some rental income. I want, you know, to put
that nurse in the back, or I want to put
somebody in the back of my yard and help me
pay my mortgage with that rental income. So rental income,
but lots of people want to start a music studio
(05:45):
back there. They want to have their own yoga studio
back there. Maybe they're retirees and they need to go
and they want to live in the back, in the
backyard because they don't need their large home anymore. The
use cases are really significant and interesting, and so when
people build these things, they're building themselves, building it for themselves.
But once they sell that home, maybe the next buyer
(06:07):
is going to use that accessory dwelling unit for something else,
maybe in nanny. Maybe when you have a baby, you
could put your nanny back there. Maybe you can move
mom back there. You don't want to living in a
senior facility. So I love the use cases.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Well, you know, first of all, education is a powerful
thing because you took me from humor to reality by
mentioning parents. You know, we have a really issue with
housing for parents because we never plan for our parents,
get know, where do they go? And being in a
tiny home facility seven hundred square feet, that's a lot
(06:41):
that you can put on your property. Then you mentioned
you know, Then you mentioned nurse which is another situation.
Then I love the other thought that you brought up
extra income. You took this from because a lot of
people want to know. Back in the day, it was
always building a garage over your putting an apartment over
your garage. But you don't have to do that. But
(07:01):
I want to slow this down for a minute, Paul.
In my mind, I thought a tiny home was just
already manufacturer, just bring it in, just flop it down.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
But I keep hearing you use the word build.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Tiny homes aren't like mobile homes. You can just go
pick them out and just put them on a lot.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Are you got a few options? Mostly out here people
are building their own units. They're designing them to fit
their backyard, They're they're designing them to be permanent structures.
That's what we think of ADUs Uh but there are
you're talking you're talking about the Amazon product. There are
what we call the other the other side of the spectrum,
(07:40):
pre fab prefabricated gravitation right, built in a built in
a factory, uh, craned in on your lot. But those
are built those aren't customs, right, So you got to
pick one. I'll take this one or I'll take that one.
That's another option too, But just remember, you know, you
got to get those big boys delivered, and that costs something,
and you got to get them craned in right at
(08:02):
that costs something. And then I'll bring up what people
usually forget when they think about buying one of those
or a home on Amazon, is somebody's kind of got
to put the thing together. And even if it comes
kind of constructed, someone's got to build a footing, a
foundation on your propert. People kind of forget that. You
don't just PLoP it down on dirt. Usually someone's got
(08:23):
to build a foundation. And then most importantly, someone's kind
of connected to the utilities because they don't come with
their own water source or power source or gas source,
you know, so you really do need a local contractor
to kind of help you put it all together. It
makes it sound easy when it comes from Amazon, but
there's some complications.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
What the complications are You help us get through that
with your experience. Tell us about your background renovating homes,
dealing with a nightmarriage contractors.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I think that that's.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
The nightmare that every homeowner or a person who rents
a home deals with. Talk about your experience and how
did you get in home building business a renovation business?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Paul, Yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, I'm I'm My backgrounds
real estate, right and about fifteen years ago I started
flipping and building homes here in southern California and we
just did that for a while and we ended up
building and flipping three hundred and fifty homes, so we
did quite a few. And nowadays I'm helping with this company, Maxibell.
I'm building my own accessory dwelling units here on my
(09:24):
own properties, so I'm doing a lot of that. And
you're right. When I was flipping and building homes, we
would either have a really good experience with the contractor
or a really bad experience with the contractor. And I
kind of wondered about that, why why is this industry
so challenging? And I found statistics from a few years
back for Sean. They interviewed people after they remodeled, and
they asked them if they had a good experience. Fifty
(09:46):
percent said they had a negative experience with their contractor
their remodel. Fifty percent. I thought, that's pretty high. I
have a one and two chance that was worse than
Las Vegas. You have a one and two chance of
you know, having a really bad experience. And I thought,
what what if we could help people? What if we
could help people find the right contractor. And so we
provide resources to make sure that when you're looking for
(10:07):
a contractor for your adu or whatever, your kitchen remodel,
whatever it is you're doing around your house, you better
do your homework. Don't trust that guy that just comes
in your door and sweet tox you and smells nice
and tells you that he'll be back tomorrow if you
just give him a check today. You gotta be real,
real careful. There's too many horror stories out there where
you pay somebody and you never see him again. Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So basically, like you say, do your research and make
sure that when they show up they have a history
a reference.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I guess you can say and that helps us out.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Now, when you talk about let's go to am on
a little bit about that, that's what attracted my daughter.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
She saw your name, she looked up there.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
She said, dag they got the houses in the twenty
nine thousand and under, fifty thousand and back oners and
two stories.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So the evolution of the tainting home or the ADU.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Because when I first saw him on TV, you know,
there was just basically I laughed at them. I'm gonna
be honest with you, Paul, I never live in there.
I never lived there Because they were talking about one
hundred and fifty square feed two hundred.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Square I was like, how does anybody live in there?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
But when you start throwing out numbers like six hundred
square feet, a twelve hundred square feet? Is that what
you were involved in building? Custom building out or you
will also do the smaller versions as well.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Look, there's there's a you know, we're a resource for
everything that folks are looking at. They should do their
homework right, and they can come to our site and
take a look around. But there's you're right, there's a
couple of different options, right, So you talked about the
big ones. Yes, the six seven hundred square feet, those
are general built by a contractor in your backyard. You're
going to hire a legitimate general contractor get an architect
(12:06):
to design the plans and and build it right there
in your backyard. So that's option one usually probably the
most expensive, because you're getting a real house, right. Option
two is the little tiny one hundred and fifty square
foot ones you talk about. They're usually mobile, right, they
almost they can almost drive them in, drive them onto
your property. Real small, real They have that tiny little
kitchen and you know whatnot that's you know, almost like
(12:27):
living in a motor home in a sense. And then
there's stuff in the middle, like these Amazon homes or
these prefabricated homes. You know. Maybe there there's a site
called a website called boxable that's really interesting. They kind
of come the house kind of comes folded up, if
you can believe it, almost like Orgambi, and they fold
it up, put it on a truck, bring it to
your site, and unfold it and you have a house
(12:49):
that's probably about two hundred square feet something like that.
Fifty square feet.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
That would I got a foldable house, I swear, and
you just and they do it. But you do tell
everybody make sure you get contractors.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Don't you try to do it. That's a number one
message I'm hearing from this interview.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Well, look on the Amazon Home you gotta be careful, right,
you know what you're buying is is just a bunch
of parts, right, you know, I mean you got to
really be careful. Unless you're really really handy, you know
how to work that nail gun. You need some help.
You're gonna need a local contractor to help you out,
no question.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Okay, Cool, you mentioned Maximo. That's the platform that they
can go to. What is the experience that you're offering
to anybody who's listening to the show, And just make
sure we get the correct website so we drive them there.
What is the experience and what do they get? And
do they register to get the digital information do they do?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Is it virtual tours?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Are there's.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Dimensional drawings on your website? Talk to us about that.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, we kind of have it all. We have a
pretty good YouTube channel with you know, I don't know
one hundred or so videos that people can search through
that can look at this kind of tiny home that
you and I talked about, or something different. They can
look at designs. We're a research site. We want people
to do their homework. It can be us, maxable or
other sites. Just just check out learn about them. Don't
(14:16):
go to Amazon and click, you know, by now on
one of these things until you kind of do your homework.
It's because, like.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I said earlier, and if in this interview was about
you know, I was just started in a very humorous
state home. And then you start breaking down the reality
when you start talking about how you can make extra income,
how this can be a major asset. If you have
an issue with your parents who are aging, what do
(14:44):
you put them? You can put them in attaining home
on your property. Retirees can look at this as a
facility that you can go and live in.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
And like I said, twelve hundred square.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Feet is a lot. My very first apartment I was
seven hundred square feet. I was absolutely very comfortable in that.
But you did remind me of this is that Rushwan,
you still got to have a foundation to put this
on top of you still got to have utilities tied
into it, you still got to have permits. Run that
through my audience again, because I don't want to. They're
(15:17):
hearing it from me. You are the expert. You've renervated
three hundred and fifty homes in your life to add more,
and you're constantly building custom ADUs. Talk to my audience
about the mistakes people make and how they should move
forward when they come talk to you.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, I mean, folks do these things. I'll say, we
use the word illegally. They add, you know, something to
their home illegally, they had a patio cover legally, They'll
put a tiny home in their backyard illegally. It's not ideal. Well,
it's just not ideal. You can do it without your
city permissions, but it's not ideal, right because you're you're
never going to get the value out of it when
you sell your home. You really aren't allowed to rent
(15:54):
it out. You want to do it legally. So that
means if you whatever tiny home you're looking at, or
you you're thinking about, whether it's Amazon or somewhere else,
go down to your city's building department, tell them what
you're thinking about doing and ask them what they need
from you, so you can get it permitted correctly, done correctly,
so at the end of it, you can get what's
called a certificate of occupancy. Someone's allowed to live in there.
(16:16):
Do it right. You're gonna spend lots of money. This
is not a couple grand You're gonna spend lots of money,
whether it's fifty k or one hundred kg, and spend
lots of money. Do it right. This is going to
be somebody's home. Somebody's going to live in there. You
want to make sure it's safe. You don't want to
put mom into something that's not safe, that you know
isn't done correctly on the right foundation, isn't hooked up
to the electrical correctly. Go that's my biggest advice. Go
(16:38):
down to your building department at your city and ask
them what guidelines, what requirements they have for you to
put this thing in your backyard.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
You know, some Paul just being serious about what's happening
in our world today with the homeless situation. You know,
I live in Atlanta, and that when every time I
fly out to Los angeless like stunny, the amount of
homeless people that you see, just like I mean, if
you've never been, if you've never seen a homeless situation
in a major city, you go to Los Angeles, it
(17:07):
really will stun you. And even in the city of Atlanta,
there's certain areas on the freeware you can just drive
and just just a homeless village. And during the election,
and I always hear people talk about affordable housing, affordable house,
and affordable housing. When you start talking about homes under
a fifty thousand dollars and you're talking about with balconies
(17:30):
and picture windows, am I crazy when I say that
this is a possible remedy for the homeless crisis that
we're dealing with in America today.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I love that idea. And not only do I do
I love that idea, but I can tell you, for example,
in San Diego, because we work throughout California, in San Diego,
they have a new program in that city that allows
a property owner, let's say a property owner has a
larger sized property throughout the state, mostly you can add
one accessory to well unit, maybe two accessory dwelling units.
(18:02):
San Diego said, if you make them affordable, if you
restrict their affordability for folks that you know, to keep
that those rents low. You can build as many accessory
dwelling units on your property as you want, no limit.
So right, like you said, you know, build eight of those,
make them affordable, make the rents something somebody can reasonably pay,
and yeah, you take people off the street potentially.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Now, when it comes to Adu's property value, that's always
a big statement. You know, putting a taining home does
it decrease your value of your property? What does that do?
And what? In particularly I live in Atlanta, do you
look like you've lost your mind if you put a
tainy home on an acre of property or five acres
of property?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
What I know?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
You live into California where property space is smaller, and
it makes sense sometimes just slide a taining home in there.
Now we're talking to the real world, which is outside
of California. Talk to us about the taining home value
to properties and what type of property size works for
a tiny home.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Look, I mean to me, it's pretty simple. You're putting
a whole second home, a living structure onto your property.
You have your main house. Let's say you could rent
that for whatever amount you could rent it. But now
you have a second property and somebody could live there.
And if somebody's gonna live they're not gonna live there
for free. They're gonna pay you rent. And so I
think you've just enhanced the value of your property. You're
(19:26):
making money. Your audience knows that. You know, if you
invest in real estate, if you have one rental unit,
two rental units, that's a great way to build wealth.
So I think you add a tiny home or accessory
dwelling into your property, you're only enhancing the value of
that property. And in terms of size, I think it's
a matter of what fits on your property. Like you said,
(19:47):
whether you're at California with smaller lots, whether you're in
Atlanta with larger lots, whatever fits and fits you know
nicely and generously and makes sense for you. They're here
are regulations don't require a minimum size. So I think
whatever works for you, it's great.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Now enthusiasm, they always say, marketing is how people find
out about certain things. Now, Amazon selling a two story
tiny home for under fifty thousand dollars, I was like,
complete with balconies and picture windows. And that's that giant
window you love on your home. Okay, when you hear that,
and you being a guy of ADU talk to us
(20:25):
about where Amazon may be taking this brand and how
it may become a mass appeal throughout the entire country.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Look, I love it. It's great marketing. Amazon's right a
big name, so if they're doing something that's really interesting.
I remember before my time, to be honest with you, Rashanna,
and I'm not that young. I remember I heard that
the Sears Catalog used to sell a house. Okay, so
I remember that, right, You remember hearing about that? So
this maybe this is the next version of the Seers
Catalog selling a house. I think it's really interesting. But
(20:58):
I also think whether it's Amazon or somebody else, there
needs to be an educational component here, because again, I
don't think the average person that hits click now today
to buy that house is going to be happy with
the way things turn out. I think they need to
understand what they get and what they don't get. And
like we talked about, uh, it's really hard to do
(21:20):
unless you're to build something like that, unless you're really
really handy, and I think you need a local contractor
to help you out, and I think you need your
local city to be on board. So I don't want
to call it a gimmick. Like you said, you call
it marketing, right, that's marketing. It's good marketing.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
But I'd love to hear.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
From the people that bought those and find out, you know,
what kind of experience they had and how they ended up.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
You know, if we close this out, you know, mobile
home parks, you know, and then now you have tiny homes.
Now they call it adu's And somehow ADUs sound a
little bit more sexier than mobile home parks.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
How did that happen? How did the ADU?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Because I guess again, marketing, but it seems like I
will tell you this, Paul, I'm much more receptive to
buy the ADU than buying a mobile home, and that
is marketing, and that is the business you're in. I
wish you good luck, my friend, And I'm pretty sure
my daughter, once she hears this interview, she's going to
(22:18):
be even more motivated to buy an ADU. But you
gave me such such such tremendous tips on how to
look at this whole community that's going out there, and
I hope I'm just a guy on the show, and
I wish America would look at the possibilities of seeing
what ADUs can do for the homeless community because we
have to do something and we have to get these
(22:40):
people off the street.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Any closing thoughts, paul.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
I love it, Rashaan, thank you for having me on,
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation master Class.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You are awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guess
on the show today and thank you O listening to
audience now. If you want to listen to the episode,
I want to be a guest.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
On the show. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media
handle is money Making Conversation. Join us next week and
remember to always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
Hi, I'm Rashaan McDonald, a host of weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own. If you
want to be a guest on my show, please visit
our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click the b a
guest button. Fill out the information to us, submit and
(00:23):
it comes directly to me. Now, let's get this show started.
My guess is a serial entrepreneur and authority on taming homes.
They're officially called accessory dwelling units. Now well, Amazon is
now selling a two story tiny home for under fifty
thousand dollars, complete with bacconies and picture windows. Can you
believe that my guess is personally built and renovated over
(00:45):
three hundred and fifty homes and encounter the frustrations that
arise when contractors failed to meet the expectations.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Buckle up, it's tiny home time. Please.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Paul Dryshevski. How you doing, Paul?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Thank you, Thank you for having me. Rashan. Great to
be with you.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Okay, Paul, I got to get this question that accessory
dwelling units when it stop being tiny homes.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Man, tiny homes works so many brother.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, well you and I were talking about that. I
like tiny homes. I like granny flats. That was good marketing.
Now they're accessory dwelling units, which is a mouthful. So
let's call them ad us. We call them ADUs out
here in California.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Okay. Cool.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Now I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia, and I've been aware
of Tony Holmes for years. I remember I was in Houston,
where I'm also living. Houston in twenty seventeen. They was
creating tiny home communities, you know, really creating modern community.
Tell me the history if you can of tiny homes
and why you know, we can look at the price tag,
(01:45):
but why are they why people are like finding it.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I'm comfortable with living in the tiny home space.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Now, I mean here on the West Coast, and really,
this is this is happening all over the country. The
governments really want to find housing alternatives, right, we want
to densify housing, we want to bring housings too expensive.
We want options for all sorts of folks. And so
(02:11):
they said, really, anyone in the state here can build
a second home on their property. And that never used
to be the case. You were never allowed to build
a second home on your property because that, you know,
that densifies everything, that creates a duplex in a sense.
Now everybody can do it, and that's a big deal
because that provides all sorts of folks a great place
(02:32):
to live because they are small, right, they are tiny homes.
A lot of what we see being built are six hundred,
seven hundred and eight hundred square foot homes. Great for singles,
great for couples, great for retirees that don't need their
large home anymore. All the home builders they're building these
big homes, two twenty five hundred, three thousand square foot homes,
which is great, great for families, but lots of people
need other options, smaller type homes. And so that's why
(02:56):
I think this has become a trend.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
OK.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I would tell you my fair first apartment was seven
hundred square feet.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It was one of those.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Split It was a studio, but it had a wall
in it, and I was very very comfortable living in
seven hundred square feet when I think about it. So
for you, you saying that a tiny home is six
hundred square feet. That sounds douable. In my mind, doesn't
seem like because I think that the word tainy kind
of makes it seem like it really is a small space,
(03:23):
but it really is a liver space because I was
very comfortable living in seven hundred square feet.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, for sure, I mean that's a good size apartment.
We're seeing them anywhere from one hundred and fifty square
feet real small, right all the way up the state
here allows up to twelve hundred square feet. Oh so
when you say tiny, you know, twelve hundred square feet
is not tiny. That's a house.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, my first home was fourteen hundred square feet.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
That was a two bedroom, one bath.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I'm just giving people contexts when you start using the
word tiny homes of eighty us that they're called now,
is that when you talk talking about seven hundred square feet,
I've lived that my third first apartment you're talking about
would you say eleven hundred homes of what? Twelve twelve
hundred my very first house and I was with a
one bed with a one car garage. I had a
(04:10):
That was my first house. So have you ever my
friend lived in a tiny.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Home I have never lived in the tiny home.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Okay, so you are an authority. What excites you about
talking about tiny homes? And we're going to get to
the fact that Amazon is now selling them for under
fifty thousand dollars, But I really want to get into
the whole live aspect and then also the design and
plus you've renovated over three hundred and fifty homes in
your career, talk to us about tiny homes.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
So we started this company five six years ago called Maximle.
And this company is online and it's a resource for
anything and everything, accessory dwelling units, tiny homes, granny flats. Right,
if someone's thinking about it, I know you were talking
about your daughter thinking about it. Someone's thinking about it,
the first thing they need to do is research, because
it's still a house, right, It's still a home, whether
(05:03):
you buy it from Amazon or you build it yourself.
It's no joke. You're not building a Lego kit here.
So you need to know what you're doing, how to
design it, what it costs, how to finance it. So
that's what my company Maxwell does. Now what gets me
so excited about it is the use cases. So a
second home in your yard. A tiny home in your
yard can be used for so many things. We have
(05:25):
lots of clients coming to us. Some of them, about
fifty percent, will say, I want to build a home
in my backyard, an a du to rent because I
want some rental income. I want, you know, to put
that nurse in the back, or I want to put
somebody in the back of my yard and help me
pay my mortgage with that rental income. So rental income,
but lots of people want to start a music studio
(05:45):
back there. They want to have their own yoga studio
back there. Maybe they're retirees and they need to go
and they want to live in the back, in the
backyard because they don't need their large home anymore. The
use cases are really significant and interesting, and so when
people build these things, they're building themselves, building it for themselves.
But once they sell that home, maybe the next buyer
(06:07):
is going to use that accessory dwelling unit for something else,
maybe in nanny. Maybe when you have a baby, you
could put your nanny back there. Maybe you can move
mom back there. You don't want to living in a
senior facility. So I love the use cases.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Well, you know, first of all, education is a powerful
thing because you took me from humor to reality by
mentioning parents. You know, we have a really issue with
housing for parents because we never plan for our parents,
get know, where do they go? And being in a
tiny home facility seven hundred square feet, that's a lot
(06:41):
that you can put on your property. Then you mentioned
you know, Then you mentioned nurse which is another situation.
Then I love the other thought that you brought up
extra income. You took this from because a lot of
people want to know. Back in the day, it was
always building a garage over your putting an apartment over
your garage. But you don't have to do that. But
(07:01):
I want to slow this down for a minute, Paul.
In my mind, I thought a tiny home was just
already manufacturer, just bring it in, just flop it down.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
But I keep hearing you use the word build.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Tiny homes aren't like mobile homes. You can just go
pick them out and just put them on a lot.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Are you got a few options? Mostly out here people
are building their own units. They're designing them to fit
their backyard, They're they're designing them to be permanent structures.
That's what we think of ADUs Uh but there are
you're talking you're talking about the Amazon product. There are
what we call the other the other side of the spectrum,
(07:40):
pre fab prefabricated gravitation right, built in a built in
a factory, uh, craned in on your lot. But those
are built those aren't customs, right, So you got to
pick one. I'll take this one or I'll take that one.
That's another option too, But just remember, you know, you
got to get those big boys delivered, and that costs something,
and you got to get them craned in right at
(08:02):
that costs something. And then I'll bring up what people
usually forget when they think about buying one of those
or a home on Amazon, is somebody's kind of got
to put the thing together. And even if it comes
kind of constructed, someone's got to build a footing, a
foundation on your propert. People kind of forget that. You
don't just PLoP it down on dirt. Usually someone's got
(08:23):
to build a foundation. And then most importantly, someone's kind
of connected to the utilities because they don't come with
their own water source or power source or gas source,
you know, so you really do need a local contractor
to kind of help you put it all together. It
makes it sound easy when it comes from Amazon, but
there's some complications.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
What the complications are You help us get through that
with your experience. Tell us about your background renovating homes,
dealing with a nightmarriage contractors.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I think that that's.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
The nightmare that every homeowner or a person who rents
a home deals with. Talk about your experience and how
did you get in home building business a renovation business?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Paul, Yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, I'm I'm My backgrounds
real estate, right and about fifteen years ago I started
flipping and building homes here in southern California and we
just did that for a while and we ended up
building and flipping three hundred and fifty homes, so we
did quite a few. And nowadays I'm helping with this company, Maxibell.
I'm building my own accessory dwelling units here on my
(09:24):
own properties, so I'm doing a lot of that. And
you're right. When I was flipping and building homes, we
would either have a really good experience with the contractor
or a really bad experience with the contractor. And I
kind of wondered about that, why why is this industry
so challenging? And I found statistics from a few years
back for Sean. They interviewed people after they remodeled, and
they asked them if they had a good experience. Fifty
(09:46):
percent said they had a negative experience with their contractor
their remodel. Fifty percent. I thought, that's pretty high. I
have a one and two chance that was worse than
Las Vegas. You have a one and two chance of
you know, having a really bad experience. And I thought,
what what if we could help people? What if we
could help people find the right contractor. And so we
provide resources to make sure that when you're looking for
(10:07):
a contractor for your adu or whatever, your kitchen remodel,
whatever it is you're doing around your house, you better
do your homework. Don't trust that guy that just comes
in your door and sweet tox you and smells nice
and tells you that he'll be back tomorrow if you
just give him a check today. You gotta be real,
real careful. There's too many horror stories out there where
you pay somebody and you never see him again. Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So basically, like you say, do your research and make
sure that when they show up they have a history
a reference.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I guess you can say and that helps us out.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Now, when you talk about let's go to am on
a little bit about that, that's what attracted my daughter.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
She saw your name, she looked up there.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
She said, dag they got the houses in the twenty
nine thousand and under, fifty thousand and back oners and
two stories.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So the evolution of the tainting home or the ADU.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Because when I first saw him on TV, you know,
there was just basically I laughed at them. I'm gonna
be honest with you, Paul, I never live in there.
I never lived there Because they were talking about one
hundred and fifty square feed two hundred.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Square I was like, how does anybody live in there?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
But when you start throwing out numbers like six hundred
square feet, a twelve hundred square feet? Is that what
you were involved in building? Custom building out or you
will also do the smaller versions as well.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Look, there's there's a you know, we're a resource for
everything that folks are looking at. They should do their
homework right, and they can come to our site and
take a look around. But there's you're right, there's a
couple of different options, right, So you talked about the
big ones. Yes, the six seven hundred square feet, those
are general built by a contractor in your backyard. You're
going to hire a legitimate general contractor get an architect
(12:06):
to design the plans and and build it right there
in your backyard. So that's option one usually probably the
most expensive, because you're getting a real house, right. Option
two is the little tiny one hundred and fifty square
foot ones you talk about. They're usually mobile, right, they
almost they can almost drive them in, drive them onto
your property. Real small, real They have that tiny little
kitchen and you know whatnot that's you know, almost like
(12:27):
living in a motor home in a sense. And then
there's stuff in the middle, like these Amazon homes or
these prefabricated homes. You know. Maybe there there's a site
called a website called boxable that's really interesting. They kind
of come the house kind of comes folded up, if
you can believe it, almost like Orgambi, and they fold
it up, put it on a truck, bring it to
your site, and unfold it and you have a house
(12:49):
that's probably about two hundred square feet something like that.
Fifty square feet.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
That would I got a foldable house, I swear, and
you just and they do it. But you do tell
everybody make sure you get contractors.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Don't you try to do it. That's a number one
message I'm hearing from this interview.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Well, look on the Amazon Home you gotta be careful, right,
you know what you're buying is is just a bunch
of parts, right, you know, I mean you got to
really be careful. Unless you're really really handy, you know
how to work that nail gun. You need some help.
You're gonna need a local contractor to help you out,
no question.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Okay, Cool, you mentioned Maximo. That's the platform that they
can go to. What is the experience that you're offering
to anybody who's listening to the show, And just make
sure we get the correct website so we drive them there.
What is the experience and what do they get? And
do they register to get the digital information do they do?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Is it virtual tours?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Are there's.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Dimensional drawings on your website? Talk to us about that.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, we kind of have it all. We have a
pretty good YouTube channel with you know, I don't know
one hundred or so videos that people can search through
that can look at this kind of tiny home that
you and I talked about, or something different. They can
look at designs. We're a research site. We want people
to do their homework. It can be us, maxable or
other sites. Just just check out learn about them. Don't
(14:16):
go to Amazon and click, you know, by now on
one of these things until you kind of do your homework.
It's because, like.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I said earlier, and if in this interview was about
you know, I was just started in a very humorous
state home. And then you start breaking down the reality
when you start talking about how you can make extra income,
how this can be a major asset. If you have
an issue with your parents who are aging, what do
(14:44):
you put them? You can put them in attaining home
on your property. Retirees can look at this as a
facility that you can go and live in.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
And like I said, twelve hundred square.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Feet is a lot. My very first apartment I was
seven hundred square feet. I was absolutely very comfortable in that.
But you did remind me of this is that Rushwan,
you still got to have a foundation to put this
on top of you still got to have utilities tied
into it, you still got to have permits. Run that
through my audience again, because I don't want to. They're
(15:17):
hearing it from me. You are the expert. You've renervated
three hundred and fifty homes in your life to add more,
and you're constantly building custom ADUs. Talk to my audience
about the mistakes people make and how they should move
forward when they come talk to you.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, I mean, folks do these things. I'll say, we
use the word illegally. They add, you know, something to
their home illegally, they had a patio cover legally, They'll
put a tiny home in their backyard illegally. It's not ideal. Well,
it's just not ideal. You can do it without your
city permissions, but it's not ideal, right because you're you're
never going to get the value out of it when
you sell your home. You really aren't allowed to rent
(15:54):
it out. You want to do it legally. So that
means if you whatever tiny home you're looking at, or
you you're thinking about, whether it's Amazon or somewhere else,
go down to your city's building department, tell them what
you're thinking about doing and ask them what they need
from you, so you can get it permitted correctly, done correctly,
so at the end of it, you can get what's
called a certificate of occupancy. Someone's allowed to live in there.
(16:16):
Do it right. You're gonna spend lots of money. This
is not a couple grand You're gonna spend lots of money,
whether it's fifty k or one hundred kg, and spend
lots of money. Do it right. This is going to
be somebody's home. Somebody's going to live in there. You
want to make sure it's safe. You don't want to
put mom into something that's not safe, that you know
isn't done correctly on the right foundation, isn't hooked up
to the electrical correctly. Go that's my biggest advice. Go
(16:38):
down to your building department at your city and ask
them what guidelines, what requirements they have for you to
put this thing in your backyard.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
You know, some Paul just being serious about what's happening
in our world today with the homeless situation. You know,
I live in Atlanta, and that when every time I
fly out to Los angeless like stunny, the amount of
homeless people that you see, just like I mean, if
you've never been, if you've never seen a homeless situation
in a major city, you go to Los Angeles, it
(17:07):
really will stun you. And even in the city of Atlanta,
there's certain areas on the freeware you can just drive
and just just a homeless village. And during the election,
and I always hear people talk about affordable housing, affordable house,
and affordable housing. When you start talking about homes under
a fifty thousand dollars and you're talking about with balconies
(17:30):
and picture windows, am I crazy when I say that
this is a possible remedy for the homeless crisis that
we're dealing with in America today.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I love that idea. And not only do I do
I love that idea, but I can tell you, for example,
in San Diego, because we work throughout California, in San Diego,
they have a new program in that city that allows
a property owner, let's say a property owner has a
larger sized property throughout the state, mostly you can add
one accessory to well unit, maybe two accessory dwelling units.
(18:02):
San Diego said, if you make them affordable, if you
restrict their affordability for folks that you know, to keep
that those rents low. You can build as many accessory
dwelling units on your property as you want, no limit.
So right, like you said, you know, build eight of those,
make them affordable, make the rents something somebody can reasonably pay,
and yeah, you take people off the street potentially.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Now, when it comes to Adu's property value, that's always
a big statement. You know, putting a taining home does
it decrease your value of your property? What does that do?
And what? In particularly I live in Atlanta, do you
look like you've lost your mind if you put a
tainy home on an acre of property or five acres
of property?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
What I know?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
You live into California where property space is smaller, and
it makes sense sometimes just slide a taining home in there.
Now we're talking to the real world, which is outside
of California. Talk to us about the taining home value
to properties and what type of property size works for
a tiny home.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Look, I mean to me, it's pretty simple. You're putting
a whole second home, a living structure onto your property.
You have your main house. Let's say you could rent
that for whatever amount you could rent it. But now
you have a second property and somebody could live there.
And if somebody's gonna live they're not gonna live there
for free. They're gonna pay you rent. And so I
think you've just enhanced the value of your property. You're
(19:26):
making money. Your audience knows that. You know, if you
invest in real estate, if you have one rental unit,
two rental units, that's a great way to build wealth.
So I think you add a tiny home or accessory
dwelling into your property, you're only enhancing the value of
that property. And in terms of size, I think it's
a matter of what fits on your property. Like you said,
(19:47):
whether you're at California with smaller lots, whether you're in
Atlanta with larger lots, whatever fits and fits you know
nicely and generously and makes sense for you. They're here
are regulations don't require a minimum size. So I think
whatever works for you, it's great.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Now enthusiasm, they always say, marketing is how people find
out about certain things. Now, Amazon selling a two story
tiny home for under fifty thousand dollars, I was like,
complete with balconies and picture windows. And that's that giant
window you love on your home. Okay, when you hear that,
and you being a guy of ADU talk to us
(20:25):
about where Amazon may be taking this brand and how
it may become a mass appeal throughout the entire country.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Look, I love it. It's great marketing. Amazon's right a
big name, so if they're doing something that's really interesting.
I remember before my time, to be honest with you, Rashanna,
and I'm not that young. I remember I heard that
the Sears Catalog used to sell a house. Okay, so
I remember that, right, You remember hearing about that? So
this maybe this is the next version of the Seers
Catalog selling a house. I think it's really interesting. But
(20:58):
I also think whether it's Amazon or somebody else, there
needs to be an educational component here, because again, I
don't think the average person that hits click now today
to buy that house is going to be happy with
the way things turn out. I think they need to
understand what they get and what they don't get. And
like we talked about, uh, it's really hard to do
(21:20):
unless you're to build something like that, unless you're really
really handy, and I think you need a local contractor
to help you out, and I think you need your
local city to be on board. So I don't want
to call it a gimmick. Like you said, you call
it marketing, right, that's marketing. It's good marketing.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
But I'd love to hear.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
From the people that bought those and find out, you know,
what kind of experience they had and how they ended up.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
You know, if we close this out, you know, mobile
home parks, you know, and then now you have tiny homes.
Now they call it adu's And somehow ADUs sound a
little bit more sexier than mobile home parks.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
How did that happen? How did the ADU?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Because I guess again, marketing, but it seems like I
will tell you this, Paul, I'm much more receptive to
buy the ADU than buying a mobile home, and that
is marketing, and that is the business you're in. I
wish you good luck, my friend, And I'm pretty sure
my daughter, once she hears this interview, she's going to
(22:18):
be even more motivated to buy an ADU. But you
gave me such such such tremendous tips on how to
look at this whole community that's going out there, and
I hope I'm just a guy on the show, and
I wish America would look at the possibilities of seeing
what ADUs can do for the homeless community because we
have to do something and we have to get these
(22:40):
people off the street.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Any closing thoughts, paul.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
I love it, Rashaan, thank you for having me on,
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation master Class.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You are awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guess
on the show today and thank you O listening to
audience now. If you want to listen to the episode,
I want to be a guest.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
On the show. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media
handle is money Making Conversation. Join us next week and
remember to always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
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