1. Goal clarity
You can check these off when…
- You can state the primary use in one sentence — rental income, family housing, office — and everyone on title agrees with it.
- You know which ADU type you're pursuing — or you've at least narrowed to two. Our quiz and type comparisons get you there.
- You've sanity-checked size against the use — a rental pencils differently at 1-bed vs 2-bed; the size calculator shows what your city must allow.
2. Budget reality
You can check these off when…
- Your range overlaps published reality — compare against our SoCal cost ranges for your type. If your budget is half the bottom of the range, the project needs rethinking before bidding.
- You've budgeted beyond construction — the soft-cost categories are mapped, even if some numbers are pending city quotes.
- You have a contingency — a buffer for the unknowns every project has; a bid consuming 100% of available funds is a plan to run out.
3. Financing path
You can check these off when…
- You know which instrument you're using — HELOC, cash-out refi, construction loan, or cash. The comparison guide and payment calculator cover the tradeoffs.
- You've had one real conversation with a lender — rates and eligibility in writing beat assumptions.
- The monthly payment works without rental income — rent can support the numbers, but underwriting your own budget on projected rent is how projects become distressed. Our rental-income guide covers thinking through it honestly.
4. Property knowledge
You can check these off when…
- You know your jurisdiction and zoning — city or unincorporated county, checked via our zoning lookup guide.
- You've read your city's ADU guide — local programs and quirks are real; find yours in the service area.
- You know the obvious site facts — roughly where utilities enter, whether the lot slopes, what's in the yard that has to move.
- You've looked for deal-breakers — easements, HOA rules (what HOAs can and can't do), or an unpermitted structure that needs resolving first.
5. Decision team
You can check these off when…
- Every owner on title is on board — contractors need signatures from all of them, and mid-project disagreement is the most expensive kind.
- One person is the point of contact — projects with rotating decision-makers accumulate change orders.
- You know your design path — architect first, or design-build — even provisionally.
Scoring yourself
All five sections solid: you're ready for walkthroughs — prep with our walkthrough guide. One or two gaps: close them first; each is usually days of work, not months, and bids you collect afterward will be sharper. Mostly gaps: you're researching, not bidding — which is exactly the right thing to be doing, and the free property review below is built for where you are.
Frequently asked questions
Before collecting formal bids, yes — gaps become either padded pricing or change orders. A free property review is different: it's designed for earlier-stage homeowners and helps close the property-knowledge section.
For most homeowners the gaps are goal alignment and one lender conversation — days to a few weeks. The point isn't delay; it's that walkthroughs and bids collected once are better than bids collected twice.
Look at smaller or different types first — a JADU or conversion changes the math substantially — and check the fee thresholds in our soft-cost guide. If it still doesn't reach, waiting beats starting a project that can't finish.