Rob Hill: Backyard Cottages: Eco-Friendly Investments that Provide Affordable Housing
Updated regulations in Seattle have more and more homeowners seriously considering the possibility of building a DADU (Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit) on their property. Homeowners, renters, and the City of Seattle in general all stand to benefit from an increase in DADUs, but all too frequently, the cost of building a DADU can be prohibitively expensive. Then MyKabin came along. In this episode of the Rise Seattle Podcast, host Tyler Davis Jones sits down with Rob Hill from MyKabin. This innovative company is focused on building DADUs in the backyards of single-family homes in Seattle, and it all started with a change in regulations that allowed for more desperately needed affordable housing options. AT THE HEART OF MyKabins In the podcast episode, Rob and Tyler dive into how MyKabins came to be (the idea came to life over poker) and the problems that MyKabins works to address, the philosophy behind MyKabins, and what the community can expect. After discussing the many frustrations involved with actually getting a DADU built, MyKabins Co-Founder Clint Jones and fellow Co-Founder Tom Todaro kept coming back to the fact that it was hard to get a straight answer from contractors about how much it would actually cost. They felt the construction industry was outdated with their whole process, and they wanted to figure out if they could put an upfront price on a DADU. “It doesn’t matter how much you change the laws and make things easy,” says Rob. “If the cost doesn't make sense, nobody’s going to do it.” After mulling over potential DADU designs and associated costs, they figured out that they *could* put a price point on the cabins, and from that idea, MyKabin was born. Clint and Tom brought Rob on (Rob is Clint’s cousin) to focus on the sales and marketing side of things: “I go out there, I educate people,” shares Rob. “We’re a couple of local guys trying to make things better for people and improve the city both from a green standpoint and from a density standpoint, and [creating a] chance for people to make some money too—I mean who doesn’t want to do all of that?” “Any good product, you shouldn’t have to sell,” he adds. Rob focuses on providing education about MyKabins, and people see the inherent value on their own. MINDSET SHIFTS & COMMUNITY IMPACT What changed in the Seattle City Council to allow for these DADUs to be built so freely? “I think that there was a big shift in the mindset,” shares Rob. He believes that the original rules surrounding DADUs were in place in part due to a fear that if the city opened up the “floodgates” to DADUs, people would take advantage of it. Many people were also afraid of what DADUs would do to their neighborhoods. Rob calls this “pre-tech boom thinking”—at some point, Seattle had to realize that they desperately needed to address the housing crisis and increase density. But of course, addressing these problems has not been without their growing pains, and Tyler acknowledges how challenging it has been for many people who have lived here for decades to watch their city transform. Tyler adds that in a recent interview with Amy King from Square Peg, they talked about how people often discuss how expensive housing is in Seattle, and they discuss low-income housing, but rarely do people address solutions for affordable housing. Tyler adds that DADUs not only offer investment opportunities for people like him (self-described as an “average joe who is still privileged”) who can see outside the current system and can still make money all while benefiting the city. “To me it’s win, win, win,” adds Tyler. Rob also adds that adding DADUs to neighborhoods is a slower, more gradual way to add affordable housing to a neighborhood, versus putting in a big new condo building that’s going to have a much more drastic impact. For example, you can add a DADU to a property in Magnolia, and someon
