House Hacking Part 3: Legally Convert a Window Into an Exterior Door to Create an In-Home Airbnb Rental Unit, Featuring Marketing Director Holly
CREDITS
Hosted by: Kristina Modares and Steph Douglass
Produced and Edited by: Megan Pue
Music by: Lemonmusicstudio
Photo by: Chelsea Francis
SEASON 6, EPISODE 8 SUMMARY
This week, our Marketing Director Holly joins us for the first time (ever!) to share her sneaky duplex "why" and the exterior door permitting + installation process in Austin, Texas. She did her due diligence, putting her vision onto paper and vetting more than a dozen contractors to complete this project. Listen now to inspire your house-hacking journey!
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Related Resources
Blog post: "Teacher Turned Real Estate Investor Via House Hacking (Sneaky Duplex Reveal)!"
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Transcript (Auto-Generated)
Steph (00:10.302)
I might just put this up here too. Okay. Okay, you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. Yay. All right. Welcome to the Open House Podcast where women talk real estate. I'm Steph Douglas and I am here with our Director of Marketing, Holly. Should I say your whole name? No, Holly's good. Holly's good. And I'm excited to talk to you about your process. I really haven't.
gotten the whole picture, because you've come in and said various things about it, but we're going to talk about the whole process right now. And the process is creating a sneaky duplex in her home. And this is the third part of our House Hacking series. House hacking has been a huge part of my journey in real estate and a huge part of my portfolio overall. It's...
a clever way to earn cash by turning your room and your house into a separate rental space. And so the actual definition of a sneaky duplex is house size, oh, let's see, Megan. Oh, and sneaky duplex is a term that we coined at Open House. We did not coin.
house hacking, that is something to be clear about. But Sneaky Duplex is specifically us, and Christina and I did this kind of just because we were scrappy, we were at the beginning of our careers in earning income from real estate, and we were like, we have some extra space in our house, we could potentially use this as an income producing section, and we were tired of sharing space, so we didn't want people to enter our...
living space or kitchen and so we sectioned off a piece of our house and it was sort of like a hotel room or there's sort of like enough space for a bed maybe a chair maybe a table and then a bathroom of course not a full kitchen although I've seen some with like a little kitchenette I've used mini fridges microwave stuff like that so yeah Holly take it away who are you? I think one
Steph (02:18.254)
important part of that is the addition of an exterior door. Yes. Which is what I'll get into in a little bit more detail, but I wanted to go back, as you said... I'm getting comfy. Behind the scenes. I wanted to go back to 2021, which is like when I...
Decided I was gonna move forward with open house Austin and team up with a realtor. So for a little bit more context I had just adopted my dog. I love so so much but it became quickly apparent that living an apartment with your little Australian Shepherd is not always the most doable super high energy and a little bit reactive So I wanted a yard
where she could play and be safe and I knew that a house was my connection to that. So I had already followed Open House Austin on Instagram and I had listened to this very podcast. Yeah. I don't know that I knew that. Yes, yes. I listened for a while. I would say like a month or two. And that's what led me to an educational webinar. And today's equivalent of that would actually be our How Do I House in Austin workshop that we host.
Yeah, so that was during pandemic times. Yeah, we're not doing them in person. Yeah, it was online The idea of house hacking was so so exciting to me because I didn't think my yearly income could cover a mortgage Maybe it could have but I did wanted that added layer of security. Yeah, so I started touring homes with Alan after a quick call and
For me, he was the perfect realtor because he was super reassuring and I was a little nervous going into the process. He's also so low pressure. Yes. He's not one to steer, but he's going to be supportive. Yeah, yeah. And he would meet up with me to grab a coffee and look at homes online when I really was getting to a roadblock in my journey, but laid back, extremely knowledgeable. And that's definitely what kept me going when we were in a very competitive.
Steph (04:30.136)
Yes. Back in 2021. Yes. So we did find a home in South Austin, not far from some cool bars and walkable to a food truck park with a sizable primary bedroom. And with the help of Alan, there was definitely a vision there that he saw. And you actually came and looked at the house with me as well. Yes. And you saw it leads out into the backyard. You could actually split the backyard in half and then give a little...
patio type of feel to a midterm or short -term renter, which is something that I thought about doing in the future. But the next piece of the puzzle was the permitting and installing going from a window, which is what was there originally, to a pair of sliding glass doors leading out into the backyard. So it's funny because, I mean, that's usually the case, I think. Most primary bedrooms don't have doors that open out.
into the yard, but some do. So like you could be looking for that, but the barriers that most people would see like, oh this is a window, too bad I can't do it, you can relatively easily. We'll get into your journey about with it and permitting and stuff like that, but it's not like, it's not as hard to cut into a house as people might think, right? Yeah, definitely. We've talked about potentially you could add a mini split if you find that air conditioning between that side of your house.
and the other side of the house is an issue. If you're worried about noise, you could add a noise machine. There are definitely some creative ways to think about it. And that was my starting point. Yeah. Actually touring the homes and thinking about the Sinky Duplex, that made it seem so much more possible for me. And having someone there who has so much experience in seeing a layout that way, that's like exactly where my mind goes every time I go into a house. But that's not, not everyone has so much experience in that.
So I like that Alan was able to kind of see the vision and like kind of like lead you to that because now you see it too. I like that you mentioned privacy, like yard privacy, especially with Hush because in my dog as well we have similarly reactive dogs and like my dog would not smile upon a stranger coming into her yard. And so having like fencing is magical. Like being able to see the vision of like, okay, I could put a fence here. They could have...
Steph (06:54.958)
It's not like they need tons of space. They need a place to sit with their coffee in the morning and maybe do some yoga or something. So it's pretty cool what you can do with a single family residence to still have privacy from your guests. Yeah. And even today when we were chatting with the other agents about the method, about the strategy, Alan was like, yeah, I mean, in some cases you see a house and it's going to be $0 to set up a sneaky duplex because they do have that door already. And it is just...
lock and key. So my story is a little bit different, a little bit winding, and I was focused on some customizations that not everyone is. So just keep in mind that you can do this at a pretty lower cost than I did, but I wanted something that I felt I could really enjoy during the times that I wasn't renting it out. And for me, having like a really sizable sliding glass door, like that was my dream then. Yeah.
Yeah, for the lighting. I love that. And the other thing to think about, because as we mentioned, the privacy from your actual home or you live, some people opt to completely close it in. Right. But like you said, some people, a lot of people would still want to use that when you don't have guests. So it's like, what are the solutions there? What are your solutions? What are you going to do with the door that enters from your part of the house to that section? Yeah, I think I'm taking from something you did way earlier.
If I were to get it up and running today, I would put a sizeable bookcase blocking the door leading into the rest of the home. And then I think you lock that up and you put in some sound barrier proofing and you're all good to go, I would say. You mentioned sound proofing before with a noise machine, but if you put a bookshelf, it's easy to just put some foam or something that's not too permanent. That if you were like, okay, I'm done, I don't need to do this anymore.
you could just remove it without much effort, which I think is important, especially for people who are doing this in a phased situation. Like, you're not gonna wanna do this forever, but if you buy a house and you want to supplement your mortgage for a while, this is a great idea and not having to do too much to revert it back to your own home. Yeah, definitely. Okay, so let's get into your permitting process for the door. Yeah, do you remember the reason why I...
Steph (09:19.662)
I bought the house and I held off from doing anything big construction wise. Did you remember the reason why I started this project of installing the door? I don't think so. So Brandon and I were playing fetch with Hush in the bathroom. Oh my God, that's so funny. Yes, yes, yes. We just got in one of those ball checkers that you normally you would use with a dog with a sizable feel. Yeah, we just got in it and he threw the ball so hard.
through the window and it was over, it was done for. And I will even admit we lived with a broken window for a couple of months because I was so resistant to starting up the contractor process, but that's just how it goes sometimes. And I'm glad that it happened because I don't know, I might have put it off for even longer. So. It's a perfect window for that to happen to. Yeah, it was. If it had been the other window, it would have just been replaced anyway. But this was good. It was what needed to happen.
So funny. So what made you resistant to the contractor process? Well, I had, I don't know if I can include this. Defensing? Yeah. Yeah. I think, okay, Megan, you can start it back here, but I will say that when I'd done a previous project, I did my due diligence and I had vetted a lot of contractors and I realized that I was kind of that person.
that was going to spend a whole month preparing. So mentally, I just knew what was in it for me. Like you really could just talk to three contractors and pick your top one. But I was so focused on not being taken advantage of that I knew it would be long for me. What you're saying is so relatable. Yeah. Like people really it's first of all, not an easy process, no matter what, who you are. But I think.
it's easy to be taken advantage of. So like preventing that as best as you can, you know, it's going to take a while. So that is very, very fair. So you decided to move forward after breaking the window. And then what happens? Well, here's where we get into a little bit of the nitty gritty. I broke it down into some basic steps, but for Austin specifically, and I'm sure there's something for your respective city. If you're out of the Austin area.
Steph (11:38.446)
but you go online and you start with an interior remodel web form. And I will say the websites on Austin's side are getting better. They're getting a little bit easier to use. Once you take this form out and you complete it, it'll be like a 10 minute form just to start. So don't let that be the thing that holds you back. And we'll have a link in the show notes for that as well. So after you're submitting that interior remodel web form,
you get a confirmation email and the city's building department takes a moment to review your plans. So something I was also a little bit worried about was that I might need an architect, but in my case, because there had already been a window in this home, I really didn't need to hire an additional architect to get those plans going for me, which was a bonus. I love that. It won't always be the case, but it was for me. Yes, cost saving. Yes.
Definitely. I decided to develop something first for myself in terms of like a plan because the form following that they will ask to see a visual of what you're planning. So I just created something on Canva. And again, we can link this for you as a template, but it included the door and room measurements, some exterior steps. And I noted where electricity outlets were. That's good. Yeah.
Did they return that to you and ask you to make any changes or did they accept that? They did actually. I learned a couple of things throughout the process and I'll just say in short, if you already have a patio door, an exit in your home other than your entry, that is your essential egress and you need that for fire safety. So the rules for steps, if you're adding a second entrance in your home,
are a little bit different and you have some wiggle room to change the distance of the steps from your home. In short. Yeah, because egress essentially, like if your front door is blocked with a fire, you need another way to get out. So yeah, interesting. So you had a little more wiggle room because you already had that second door. Yes. That's great. The rules were a little bit different for me. I made some adjustments to my drawings and I always brought up that drawing when I was talking to my contractors to make sure we weren't doing anything wrong. I was.
Steph (13:49.102)
always looking back to it, so it's good to have. I think that what this demonstrates is that it will be quite different case by case. Like, not even city by city, but like cases by cases in one city. Yeah, I definitely agree. So, one important thing I wanted to note is that you will get that permit approved, fingers crossed, you also need to activate it. So, you're going through the back end, after you fill out that initial form,
You'll also be setting up something through a portal. They'll have instructions on that, but they approve it and then you have to activate it. And they'll ask for some money too as well. Did you not, it was approved, but then you didn't activate it? Yeah, I got approved and I was kind of waiting around just for something to happen and I actually needed to go in and activate the permit to get things started. That's great. Yeah. So little note there.
and you have to schedule and pass inspections during the remodeling process. In my case, I had the broken window and I moved forward with having it removed, having the door installed and setting up steps. And then I had someone come out and schedule, do the final inspection. In some cases, people will have the area inspected ahead of that installation. In my case, that did not happen. Were you supposed to or? I might have been supposed to do that.
But they, it was okay? It was okay. It was totally fine. I will say that when the contractor came out, I was so nervous, not the contractor, the inspector, the city inspector for the final inspection. I, and I've heard it varies a lot, but my guy comes out, walks into the backyard, is there for two seconds, and I am saying things like, oh, well, you know, I just really wanted to get these steps right. And he's just like,
It's great, it's perfect. Alright, and I said, next steps, what do you need me to do? And it was it? It'll be fine. We'll update everything in the portal. Wow. So for me, it was pretty simple in that way. I will note that I haven't written down. I spoke with 15 contractors total to get this project done. Wow.
Steph (16:02.614)
And a lot of that is being left on read with people, sending emails, never hearing back, or getting enormous quotes of thousands and thousands of dollars and knowing that that's just a contractor that doesn't match with what I'm trying to do. They don't want to do it. Yeah, they don't want to do it, which is totally fine. It's a competitive time for contractors. A lot of people are getting work, so they can price themselves accordingly.
I did end up working with someone in our community that I'd completed a project with already to remove the window and add the door. And then I had a second hardscaping company come in and install limestep stones, limestone stacks, which is, yep. Which is, I think the difference here, like Eric and Christina, for example, I know that they built out a wood deck outside of their sneaky duplex store. That would be.
way more cost -effective, like a couple hundred dollars and an evening of labor if you have the skills. For me, I wanted an extra element, that wow factor. I liked the look of limestone. I found a hardscape company that would do it for a couple thousand and I thought, okay, let's just do this. I don't wanna manage the upkeep of the wood. So for me, the eventual time I knew I would spend kind of as a perfectionist made me think I want something way more permanent, which.
had some risk to it because you can imagine if I'd gotten it wrong, I would have had to get it removed and installed. So, you know, with caution. Yes. I like that though. I mean, it's a longer term way of thinking. Like this is stone. It's going to be there forever. Whereas wood is just not. It does wear after a while and you have to replace it. So I like it probably more expensive than it would have been. Even if you paid someone to do the wood deck, like it would have been cheaper, but not as long lasting. Yeah.
Definitely. And another thing that I will always do moving forward, and I learned this with the previous project I'd have with fencing, if you can be on site for installations, especially if it's your primary home, be there as much as possible. Check in when you can without being too annoying, of course, like giving them space. But I was able to ask for things and make adjustments before the cement went in. And I know we made changes that have
Steph (18:20.142)
created something I'm truly happy with. Right. So I can't emphasize that enough. Yeah, I've definitely done both and had come to a project after potentially like halfway through and been like, what? Okay, we were not on the same page I thought we were and it seems like common sense. It just isn't like you just have to be very communicative and very present. Great, great advice. I also will say inspectors vary. Like you said, like you got to
very chill one, there are less chill ones. It's the human error in this process. It's like not everyone's gonna have a scrupulous eye, but some people are, so you just have to be prepared. Yeah, if you're the scrupulous one, I think you'll be guarded, hopefully, from error where you can. Right, that's so cool. So now you have a fully functioning sliding door, right? With nice limestone steps leading up.
Yes. Because your house is a little bit elevated from your yard. Yes, just a little bit. Yeah. I needed those steps. Yeah. This would be different if your house was super close to the ground. Christina and Eric's is like, it's literally just like a platform that's like four inches off the ground. But if you need steps, that's another cost. And so it will be different if you're doing this per house. But I love that you went through this process because it's important for other people to know, especially if you're like...
you're wanting to do things by the book because you are supposed to have a permit for things like this. And you'd actually be surprised what you're supposed to have a permit for. Yeah, it's a lot. I mean, there's something like, it's like one sheet of drywall worth of repair is fine. Like one sheet or less. But if you're repairing more than that, then you're supposed to have a permit. So it's like these, these like interesting things that the city, you know, it would be really hard to enforce that inside your house if you repaired more than one, maybe two sheets of drywall.
they would, it would be hard for them to catch, but technically you're supposed to. So, so just an interesting tidbit, but everything is online. Like all of their rules and everything is on their website. Yeah. And we'll have a accompanying blog post with these details and I can get some more links in there to make it accessible. The biggest barrier is starting. If I, if I can't emphasize that enough, putting it off for sure that happens from time to time. So we're going to get to the cost breakdown in a second, but I'm curious. You haven't started renting it out yet.
Steph (20:46.712)
What is your, are you going to, what's your timeline? What's the waiting period purpose? Yeah, I thought that I would do the install and start renting pretty immediately. And then we started working together and things got a little bit more comfortable for me. So I've been able to use the room recreationally for, honestly, it is the biggest bedroom in the house.
and I do not even sleep in it with my partner. We still have it set up so nicely and we have our guests and friends stay there. It's really nice because they've got that primary bathroom and they're basically, they're in their own little hotel. It's really great. And my mom, she'll stay in there when she's taking her posh, but I'm not really sure. It's a little nebulous for me what the future of living in the house looks like, but I think that it's, it's, oh, it's really great to have.
just the option. I like this, the flexibility that it provides, even though you haven't started yet renting it out, having the option is there, but then I think that this is pretty relatable where you have friends and family come and you'll block it off, or just having a space that's private from your space makes having guests so much more pleasurable and not as stressful. Yeah.
So I love that. I feel like that's probably most people how they would use this space as well. The cool thing is, if we have festivals in October, you could put it on there just for two weekends of ACL and have someone in there and make just a few extra bucks. Yeah, I love that. And there are also people in our community that go so hard. And I am a little envious of their ability to maximize profits.
on a primary home that even they still reside in. For example, I know we had a previous guest, I believe her name was Lynn, if you want to go back and listen to that episode, but she had at least one tiny home on the property and a sneaky duplex. I'm thinking like, could you add an apartment garage to that and you're still living in the primary? In those cases, when you're flexible, it doesn't have to be forever. It could just be for a couple of years.
Steph (23:00.43)
the amount that you could save and invest into your savings or maybe that dream home. That's what excites me. And that's the potential I saw even back to that first webinar. Absolutely. That's a great point. And that that that's the range of type of person is so large. And so this is like not this is this is a one size. No, no. What am I saying? It's not a one size fits all as far as you don't have to go as hard as Lynn went. You can go as hard as you're going and as slowly or quickly as you want. And it's still.
it's still opening up options. And we really like people to know that they have choice in this situation and that they can generate income from the house that they live in. And even though you haven't yet, you have the possibility and the potential. So I love it. It's so exciting. So what about cost breakdown? What did you spend on this whole process? Yeah, here are my numbers. For permitting and inspection, we're looking at about 300.
For a Pella brand sliding glass door, that was 1 .3K. For the door install labor, 2 .6K. Hardscaping material and labor, 2 .6K. So total, that's 6 .8K or about 7 ,000. It didn't hurt like that immediately. Again, because I took my time with it. I even installed the door and I waited for a little while to get the steps in. So if you can do this in measured stages, I think it's easier. Yeah.
It feels less, yeah, it feels less painful. I like that the permanent inspection is only $300. More time, but still that feels very doable. And it's done. And if you ever sell, you can say that everything is permanent and it's ready to go. That's great. And then what about furnishing? Do you already have the furniture? Did you buy furniture for that room? I repurposed the furniture I had in my previous apartment.
and got new furniture for the bedroom that I'm actually spending the most time in. So smart. Just using what I have. Yes. Did you put in a mini fridge or a microwave yet? I actually did buy a really nice convection microwave that I've still been hanging on to because I have like the perfect place for it if I were to rent out the space. Yeah, I think a mini fridge, honestly, what I would do is I would strategically be looking Facebook marketplace.
Steph (25:22.636)
around the times that dorm turnover is happening at UT. And I would do some laps around the trash cans and grab one of those fancy mini fridges. Yes. Because people are buying them for one year. I even bought them for one year when I was in college. And that's so wasteful. So if you can get anything used, that is preferable. Oh, yeah. For sure. I always get things used for any, I mean, for most things in my life. But the Facebook marketplace.
side of the street, whatever it is. Like these things don't need to be top of the line, brand new for you to furnish. So like if you're thinking of furnishing a sneaky duplex, the budgets will range. But I do love that you're gonna have, once you get it up and running, you'll have a place for them to put their leftovers, a place for them to heat up their leftovers, maybe like a plate or two and some silverware, just so that they have like their essentials. And then,
What about closet? There's a closet in there already? There's a huge closet in there. Yeah, I've thought about, it's one of those big walls of closets that you see, like pull out doors. And I've thought about putting in a locker in one of them with an actual box so that you could still make use of half of the closet and then turn the other half of the closet into the sort of kitchenette area. And then everything would be really nice and compressed and concealed. I like that. Hidden away. So yeah, I think it would...
it really lends itself to that and I thought about that when touring the homes. It's definitely worked out in that way. It's all what you think about when you go into a hotel room. So like I thought you were going to say that you're going have like a safe which people like. I mean you don't necessarily need it as much but it might make people feel safe but definitely a place to hang your clothes. I know Christina provides robes for her guests which is a nice little touch. Do you have a TV or will you have a TV in there?
I think I'm probably out of TV. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like to have TVs just just in case most people will be out and about, but you never know. And then what else? Oh, and you touched on a mini split. That is the other thing that I've run into, you know, temperature control. Christina also has a sneaky duplex in her house and she just tells them to text her if it ever gets too warm or too cold. And I personally don't want to deal with that. So I want them to have access to the temperature controls. But.
Steph (27:47.106)
It will also depend on your specific situation. Yeah. So, what about you? Do you think that you'll put in a mini -sleaer or do you think you'll...? I think I would try Christina's version. Yeah, cheaper. For a little while at least. But I know with the Texas summer and older homes, the difference in heat varies so much between sections of your house that it would probably be something I'd put in eventually. Yes. And then what about management? Would you clean? Yeah, I've...
I've had the benefit of our community for so long and heard so many different testimonials for what it's like managing your own property, managing multiple properties. If I was living on site and this was my only rental, I would certainly try the cleaning and the online management. I definitely think I could handle the online management piece. I think cleaning is something that could be outsourced. I would have to look at the, I'd have to make the calculations really. Yeah, see what would be worth it. Yes. I do like...
I like when people try it themselves first just to see what it entails and then see what pieces they like and they can keep on their plate and then offload whatever feels like too much. But yeah, I mean, even if you're supplementing your mortgage by $1 ,000 a month, $500 to $1 ,000, that's a lot. Incredible. Up to $12 ,000 a year. So I think it's an exciting strategy and I love that you're doing it so thoughtfully.
intentionally and I think that a lot of people can relate to feeling apprehension in the contractor world because there's horror stories and there's like genuine bad experiences that we or other people have had so so due diligence is important. Anything else that you want to add?
Steph (29:43.726)
I think we can leave off the questions at the end, the real life example. Oh, I'm missing that. Oh, shoot. It was from the previously written episode, and I think we're at what time, how long? We're at $30 .30. 30 minutes. That sounds pretty good. I think we could probably wrap it at that. I thought we were... I was... because it's crossed out, I wasn't going down to the bottom. That's fine. We can repurpose it for another reason. Yeah, yeah. Okay.
Well, I think the last thing I want to say is you chose to work with Open House because you specifically wanted to do this strategy and you knew that we had experience in this and I think it's really wise to hire someone who knows exactly what you want to do and has done it before themselves. So I love that. And then you came to work for us. Yeah, that was amazing. That was a lovely surprise. It was so serendipitous. It was like the...
Leading up to closing, I saw the job posting and I was like, of course I wanna work with these lovely ladies. It's been an amazing couple of years. So I just, I love our message and happy to be a part of it. Yes, amazing. Well, thank you for sharing your experiences. It's gonna help so many people. Yeah, thank you for having me. Bye. Bye. Okay, that's.