ADU’s.
If you're a Bend homeowner looking to add value to your property, create rental income, or provide housing for family members, an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) might be the perfect solution. Having recently restored a 100-year-old home in downtown Bend and worked extensively with contractors throughout Central Oregon, I've seen firsthand how thoughtful additions can transform both property value and quality of life.
Building an ADU in Bend: Your Complete Guide to Adding Value and Housing Options
Building an ADU in Bend: Your Complete Guide to Adding Value and Housing Options
By Justin Scott, Bend Real Estate Broker
If you're a Bend homeowner looking to add value to your property, create rental income, or provide housing for family members, an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) might be the perfect solution. Having recently restored a 100-year-old home in downtown Bend and worked extensively with contractors throughout Central Oregon, I've seen firsthand how thoughtful additions can transform both property value and quality of life.
What is an ADU?
An Accessory Dwelling Unit is essentially a small, complete living space on your property that includes a kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping area. Think "granny flat," "mother-in-law suite," or "backyard cottage." In Bend, these units are becoming increasingly popular as our community grapples with housing challenges and families seek creative solutions for multigenerational living.
Why ADUs Make Sense in Bend
After spending over 15 years in leadership roles and now working in real estate, I've watched Bend's housing market evolve dramatically. ADUs offer several compelling benefits:
Rental Income: Generate steady cash flow to help with mortgage payments
Property Value: Well-designed ADUs typically increase overall property value
Family Flexibility: House aging parents, adult children, or visiting family
Community Impact: Add much-needed housing to our growing community
Bend's ADU Rules: The Essentials
The City of Bend has made ADUs relatively accessible, including some pre-approved options, but there are important regulations to understand:
Size and Number Limits
Maximum size: 800 square feet for your first ADU
Second ADU: If allowed, limited to 500 square feet
One primary rule: Only one ADU per residential lot (with some exceptions)
CITY OF BEND has some pre-approved ADU options (pictured below) - click here
Key Requirements
Setbacks: Detached ADUs must be at least 6 feet from the main house
No parking minimums: Unlike many cities, Bend doesn't require additional parking
Height limits: Follow your zoning district's standard height rules
No architectural matching required: Your ADU doesn't need to match your main house's style
Special Considerations
Historic District Properties: If your property is in Old Town Bend or Drake Park Historic Districts, you'll need additional approval from the Landmarks Commission. This adds time and design requirements but ensures compatibility with our community's historic character.
The Real Costs: What to Expect
From my experience managing our own major renovation project, I can tell you that costs add up quickly. Here's what Bend homeowners typically face:
Building Permits: Approximately $6,000+
System Development Charges (SDCs): Contact the city for current rates - these can be substantial - click here to see SDC site
Construction: Licensed builders estimate $225,000-$350,000+ for an 800-square-foot ADU
Important note: Units over 800 square feet are classified as duplexes, not ADUs, which means significantly higher fees (potentially $33,000+ in SDCs). Stay under 800 square feet to maintain ADU status.
Your Step-by-Step ADU Process
Based on my experience working with Bend's permitting process, here's your roadmap:
1. Verify Feasibility
Talk with an expert like Andrew Lawrence who has a ton of experience with new builds, ADU’s and additions - Click here for his website. Or simply give Andrew a phone call and tell him Justin recommended the call: (541) 951 - 3242. You can also see some of Andrew’s great work in the social space on Instagram - click here. IG @andrewbuildingbend
Then check zoning at Bend's Community Development Data Explorer
Work with Andrew to assess your lot size, utilities, and access. Andrew will help you consider what is possible and what is not possible.
Consider setbacks and any HOA restrictions. Again, a preliminary meeting with an expert like Andrew will be very helpful and informative. I strongly recommend a meeting with Andrew or another trusted local general contractor. I know a few, feel free to reach out if you’d like to be connected to others. My number is (541) 797 - 9939. Call me! I’d also be excited to hear about your project!
2. Plan and Design
Before hiring an architect, talk to a general contractor, as mentioned above, Andrew or another trusted contractor.
Hire an architect or use Bend's pre-approved plans
If in a historic district, plan for Landmarks Commission review
Keep under 800 square feet for ADU classification
3. Get Cost Estimates
Email building@bendoregon.gov for permit fee estimates
Contact development@bendoregon.gov for SDC calculations
Get construction bids from licensed contractors
4. Submit Applications
Apply through Bend's Online Permit Center
Expect 4-8 week processing time (longer for historic districts)
Include all required documents from the Residential Submittal Checklist
5. Construction and Inspection
Work with licensed contractors (required for electrical work)
Coordinate inspections throughout the build
Obtain Certificate of Occupancy
Key Resources and Contacts
Planning Division: planning@bendoregon.gov | (541) 388-5580 Ext. 3
Building Safety: building@bendoregon.gov | (541) 388-5580 Ext. 1
Development Services: development@bendoregon.gov | (541) 388-5580 Ext. 5
City of Bend ADU Resource Hub: bendoregon.gov/adu-resources-hub
Bend Chamber ADU Guide: bendchamber.org/bend-adu-guide
Final Thoughts: Making the Right Choice
Adding an ADU is a significant investment that requires careful planning, especially in Bend's unique market. From my perspective as both a real estate professional and someone who's tackled a major renovation project, success comes down to three things: thorough planning, working with experienced professionals, and understanding the true costs upfront.
If you're considering an ADU or any real estate investment in Bend, I'd love to help you think through the possibilities. Having worked with contractors, navigated city permitting, and seen the transformation that thoughtful improvements can bring to both properties and neighborhoods, I understand both the challenges and rewards of these projects.
Ready to explore your property's ADU potential? Let's grab coffee and talk about your goals. I'm here to help you navigate both the real estate market and the possibilities for your Bend home.
Justin Scott
Licensed Real Estate Broker | Varsity Real Estate
Oregon License No. 201257899
(541) 797-9939 | Justin@varsityoregon.com
When you're needing a break from your ADU explorations and/or build, let’s jump into my 1987 F250 and head out to Camp Sherman for some fly fishing!
Better With Age.
How a teacher and realtor found a 100-year-old bungalow in Bend, Oregon.
Get outside and take a walk.
In 2020, during the middle of a global pandemic, my wife decided to get outside of the house and take a walk. She stumbled upon a disheveled-looking old Bend bungalow with a for sale by owner sign in the front yard. She got excited about the idea of bringing an old house back to life. She took me to see the house and asked me what I thought about buying this thing.
My response was, “NO WAY!”
How a teacher and realtor found a 100-year-old bungalow in Bend, Oregon.
Get outside and take a walk.
In 2020, during the middle of a global pandemic, my wife decided to get outside of the house and take a walk. She stumbled upon a disheveled-looking old Bend bungalow with a for sale by owner sign in the front yard. She got excited about the idea of bringing an old house back to life. She took me to see the house and asked me what I thought about buying this thing.
My response was, “NO WAY!”
After the dust settled on my ‘NO WAY’, I called the number on the FSBO sign and left a message. I figured if this purchase was meant to be, then I’d get a call back and we’d explore a purchase. Crickets. I didn’t hear anything for nearly a month. Then I got a phone call.
The phone call was from an old timer who was looking to sell his old house to a family, someone who would move into the neighborhood and live there. He’d had several calls from folks who wanted to buy his house for its development potential. Something they could buy and flip, or demolish and start from scratch.
If you’re lucky in life, smart, and work hard, I believe life should get better with age. My wife and I have benefited from the help of others along the way, including our recent home purchase. There are about a hundred things that lined up perfectly for us to be able to purchase this 100-year-old home and bring it back to life. Below you’ll find the list, and I’ll stop well short of one hundred. What I’d love to do is share the whole story with you in person.
So let’s go for a walk together.
If you’d like to jump into some of the photos and restoration process, check out my wife’s Instagram feed @block8bungalow, where she has documented a large portion of our purchase and project along the way.
A LIST OF ONE HUNDRED THINGS THAT LINED UP PERFECTLY ALONG THE WAY
Taking a walk by the house.
Seeing the FSBO sign in the yard.
Getting aligned on the idea of purchasing an old neglected house
Left a message with the owner and didn’t hear back for over a month.
Got a call back from the owner, and set up a walk-through to check out the house.
Called a builder friend to see if he could join us for the walk-through, and he could.
He did walk through the house with us.
The house was old, and needed alot of work, had old knob and tube wiring, original plumbing, had been a rental for 30+ years, was a duplex with an upper and lower unit, there was alot going on with this thing, but our builder friend re-assured us that the house was solid and had “good bones.”
At one point, our builder friend looked us in the eye and said, “If you don’t buy this house, I’m going to buy it.”
Without really knowing how or what the next steps were to buy a house FSBO, we made up our minds, “We’re buying this house.”
Rewind a month, we’d recently sold our 1965 Aristocrat Lo Liner Camp Trailer for $4,000, so we had a little money in the bank.
The owner of the house was willing to carry the contract, FSBO, and be our banker.
We asked what he wanted for a down payment, and he said $5,000. We said, “Yes.”
We immediately got to work on getting our existing home for sale. We’d need to sell it to use the money to restore this 100-year-old house we were about to buy.
I called a realtor friend and asked if he could help me with an FSBO deal. He said yes, and printed me a blank real estate contract.
I filled out the contract with the owner of the house. We set the financing at 3% fixed over 20 years.
Our house sold in a few days, we had multiple offers, and we accepted an offer over asking price.
This sale left us with about $185k to work with.
We walked through the 100-year-old house we’d just bought for $5,000 down, again, with a plumber, our builder, and some other contractor-type folks, and they told us we’d probably need twice what we had to really complete this project. $370k? WTF! We didn’t have $370k, but we moved forward anyway.
Then came the work of figuring out how to rework and restore this duplex into a single-family dwelling.
Since our house was built in 1925, the city of Bend records and details about our house were not all on file. I spent several hours on dozens of calls with folks in the planning and permitting office. They were friendly and as helpful as they could be without having access to much info on our house.
We met with an architect, who tried to help, but this was a challenging project.
We settled with a drafting guy to get us some drawings of what we wanted to do, we paid him, but he was not helpful. If you know a great drafting person, we’d love to meet them!
Halfway through working with a drafting guy, we fired him.
We got aligned with a builder who knew a lot about old houses and was a true craftsman. Jon Lemke from Timberfram Construction.
We've got to work on the rework restore.
We’d hired Jon for four months of work, and he tackled everything we needed him to.
We managed and GC’d the rest of the project. Our hands were on nearly every part of the project. If we didn’t do it ourselves, we managed and hired GCs who did the work.
Building material costs shot to the moon at the height of our project, and we paid 3x-6x for everything. Lumber, electrical wiring, you name it, we paid a premium for it.
Wildfires were raging in Oregon.
We filled up a thirty-yard dumpster five times with junk, construction debris, and landscaping materials that needed to be removed. After we were getting near the end of needing our dumpster, I called to have it returned, and was told, if you need it again, you won’t be able to get it, they needed the thing for fire camps. So we said goodbye to our old metal friend. We were happy to see the thing go.
This is where my list fizzles…there are so many little things that have lined up along the way to bring our house back to glory. Let’s grab a walk, coffee, or lunch, and talk renovations and remodels.
I’ll be compiling a list of all the subcontractors, material suppliers, and vendors we have worked with on our house remodel. We have a great list of people we trust and recommend!
Justin Scott
(541) 797 - 9939
Pictured below: Many projects all happening at the same time, in this picture: jacked up the front porch, reinforced with new headers, newly replaced windows, new trim, new roof, brick demo sitting in side yard, siding repair, house numbers, exploring paint colors, all while celebrating Christmas.
Film Photography.
In high school, I took a dark room photography class.
That class was nearly thirty-five years ago, 1995 - freshman year.
Last year, my daughter asked me, “Dad, can we get a film camera?”
I was STOKED!
In high school, I took a dark room photography class.
That class was nearly thirty-five years ago, 1995 - freshman year.
Last year, my daughter asked me, “Dad, can we get a film camera?”
I was STOKED! I immediately began hunting thrift shops and eBay for the perfect, or discarded, old film cameras. Needless to say, I found a few! Rather than bore you with all the details on the cameras I found and purchased (we currently have four film cameras, all old, all interesting, and all fun to shoot with). Call me if you wanna hear more about the cameras I found, or if you’d like to borrow one, I’d be happy to load you up with a fresh roll of film and let you shoot a roll yourself.
Here are some of my favorite shots from last Summer.
Film photography has a certain nostalgic element to it that I love. Framing a shot, capturing a moment, and then having to wait till the roll of film is finished, and then sent to the lab for processing, the waiting has been fun.
We found a photo lab we love working with - Legacy Film Lab.
Legacy Film Lab is located in Tustin, California.
They process rolls of film the same day they are received. They offer some great options; they scan and send you digital versions of all your prints. You can order physical copies, and they will also send you back the actual film if you want it.
We’ve had a lot of fun capturing memories and moments along the way this past year. From Bend to Europe and back, weddings, anniversaries, weekends in Sunriver, Camp Sherman, friends, family, and much more! We’ve managed to shoot more than a dozen rolls of film this year, about a roll per month, and we’re still shooting!
I hope you enjoy some of these candid shots, and I’d like to invite you to call me if you wanna talk film photography, or if you’d like me to set you up with a camera and and roll of film to shoot on your own. Now that we’re in real estate, I even shot my first listing in Sun River on 35mm. I’ll probably do a whole different blog post on that, and share a reel on Instagram at some point with the images from the listing shoot. It was fun for sure!
Enjoy!
Justin
(541) 797 - 9939
Justin@varsityoregon.com
Pictured above: My 1987 F250 parked outside our family cabin in Camp Sherman, Oregon. Camp Sherman is the perfect spot for rest, relaxation, fly fishing the Metolius River, reading a book, and taking long walks. A must-visit!
Bandon Dunes.
Three sunshine-fueled windy days at Bandon had us wanting more golf and more Bandon.
In this article, I am going to tackle two questions:
What was it like playing golf at Bandon? Specifically, I’m going to give you a quick run-down of how we spent our three days.
What could it look like to build in Bandon?
Three sunshine-fueled windy days at Bandon had us wanting more golf and more Bandon.
In this article, I am going to tackle two questions:
What was it like playing golf at Bandon? Specifically, I’m going to give you a quick run-down of how we spent our three days.
What could it look like to build in Bandon?
I think we’ve found a deal you are gonna want to see. Check out this city lot, located in the city of Bandon, 15 minutes ‘ drive to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, and a very short distance to the beach. Could this be the perfect site to build your Southern-Oregon coastal golf retreat? Take a look, and let’s write an offer! Call me at (541) 797 - 9939, and I’d love to talk more with you about Bandon.
$155,000 LOT FOR SALE ⬇️ Updated and Active as of March 4, 2026 7:26 A.M.
728 Seacrest Drive - Bandon, Oregon
And here is a link to the house I’d build on this lot - the perfect beach golf getaway.
GOLFING AT BANDON ⬇️
Oregon’s Bandon-by-the-Sea is home to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, a world-renowned golf destination on the southern Oregon coast, known for its rugged coastline, wind-swept dunes, and traditional links-style courses. With multiple award-winning courses designed to embrace the natural landscape, it's a bucket-list experience for golf enthusiasts from around the globe. We recently spent three days golfing in Bandon, and let’s just say, Bandon Delivered!
Here is our three-day itinerary:
Day 1: Drove from Bend, Oregon, to Bandon, which was about a 5-hour drive. We ate a delicious BBQ lunch at Charlotte’s. Golfed Old Macdonald. Ate dinner at McKee’s Pub. I ordered the Pork Shank, with fennel and tomato jus, smoked cheese polenta, grilled broccolini, and gremolata. One of the best meals I’ve ever eaten, I’m a sucker for warm cheesy polenta. Always gets me going.
Day 2: We ate a hearty breakfast at the lodge, classic eggs, bacon, potatoes, and toast. Delicious. After breakfast, we warmed up at the practice facility, putted around the Punch Bowl, played the Preserve, then played a round of golf at Bandon Dunes, and then had dinner at The Ghost Tree Grill. Be sure to order a whole roasted cauliflower for the table. For my main course, I went back to what worked for me on night one, something braised. I ate the braised lamb shank from Anderson Ranch in Oregon · celery root, pistachio gremolata. Again, one of the best meals I’ve eaten in my lifetime, and I’ve eaten some good meals. The only thing I would do differently is not forget my leftover lamb shank in my room fridge. I was so bummed, it would have been a perfect day three snack to eat while golfing Pacific Dunes. Oh well. Next time I’ll remember.
Day 3: We grabbed breakfast burritos at Charlotte’s, warmed up at the practice facility, played a round at Pacific Dunes, and then drove home. On the road, we stopped in Coos Bay for a late lunch at a killer burger spot, Shake N’ Burger. You need to get a burger here.
BOOK RECOMMENDATION BONUS: Dream Golf: The Making of Bandon Dunes, Revised and Expanded. After playing Bandon, I found myself fascinated with the lore, history, and stories I heard along the way. Stories about Shoe, Bandon’s Director of outdoor happiness, stories of Mike Keiser, the visionary behind bringing links golf to America, and David McKlay Kidd (DMK Golf Design), the talented young designer who built Bandon. David also happens to live in Bend, and he designed and built Bend’s only links-style course, Tetherow Golf Resort.
Pictured below: Bend, Oregon, realtors Cole Billings, Chris Swartzley, and Justin Scott golfing the stunning Pacific Dunes course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, accompanied by expert caddie Miguel Barajas. A perfect blend of coastal golf, business, and real estate lifestyle on Oregon’s premier links course.
Pictured below: Cole Billings and Justin Scott, Bend, Oregon realtors, sitting outside the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort pro shop.
The house to build in Bandon - click here or click the image below
