Thread: What to do with the backyard concete slab...

So there's a house that I'm in the middle of purchasing. It's actually my first house but I wanted it because of the rental potential.

It's a 3 bed / 3 bath, 1817sq ft, diving pool, and this concete slab.

It was listed with a 10X30 ft slab and it has a roof. 3/4 of it is open with no walls and the other 1/4 of it was a small storage room with running electric and plumbing to it. When viewing on Google Maps it had a picture of someone's boat stored in the open section.

When I was there last to look at it, it measured 20x30.

So I was thinking of two choices. The area is zoned SF, but two streets down is zoned MF. Maybe possibly be able to get it rezone but maybe I won't be able to. I was thinking of making it into a single bedroom suite where I could rent it out separately. But due to zoning I may not be able to do that and be forced to make it into a separate guest suite and hope to be able to charge more rent because of it.

Second choice is to make it into a man cave garage with a loft.

A little information from me.... not staying there longer than a year or two at the most. Want to rent it out with the possibility of selling it.

What would you do?

There is a pool? It would make a perfect outdoor cabana.

You will need an architectual plan for a permit. That will cost a bit and you won't be renting the whole house in a while due to construction. How about a sunroom?

Whatever you do, make sure the loss of use and cost of contruction is returned when you sell. Sometimes addition make the house look weird and thus depreciate the house value if it's in a good neighborhood

Well I'm going to look at it today and I'll snap a few photos. It's just looks kinda bleak with the slab and nothing else. The house has a small arizona room (basically a sun room with less windows) on the back of the house.

If I leave it as is, it won't help with selling the house. That's why I was thinking of either a very nice garage or a separate guest suite for in-laws.

At the end of the day, do the math to see if spending the addition makes sense. If you only plan to live there for a year, I'd not bother. The contruction won't be done by the time you move out!