How I Turned My First DIY ADU Into a Full-Time Construction Business

My background isn’t real estate. I was a picture editor for reality television. But in 2017 I built my first ADU with my wife as an owner-builder, and that struggle turned into GoADU — a company that now helps homeowners across greater Los Angeles build accessory dwelling units from A to Z. On this episode of Unscripted Small Business with host Zaneta Chuniq Inpower, I talked through how a side project became a full-time business.

We covered the real ROI math behind an ADU, why “passive income” is mostly a myth, how LA’s zoning is shifting from state law to local law, the hardest lesson of learning to delegate, and why AI is a bearer of bad news for the creative industry I came from. GoADU handles the ADUs; our parent company, Vaisman Construction, builds full single-family homes.

From Reality-TV Editor to ADU Builder

My path into construction was a pivot. I built my own ADU first, learned as an owner-builder, and slowly became the voice of reason telling other homeowners it was legal and doable. I launched the business while still editing, and it grew until I started turning down editing gigs.

“My background is I’m a picture editor for reality television. So I got started by doing my first ADU on my own, learning as an owner-builder. Back in 2017, I built my first ADU with my wife, and we were banging our heads against the walls, trying to figure it out.” — Gil Vaisman

“Basically yeah, Plan B became Plan A.” — Gil Vaisman

Why an ADU Is a Homeowner’s First Move

For most LA homeowners, an ADU is the entry-level play — the first go-to before buying a second property, because the barrier is so much lower. But I’m honest about the tradeoffs: rental income is real, just not as hands-off as people expect.

“Right now it’s kind of the one-on-one play for everybody that is a homeowner. Either people that are sitting on a property — if you already have a property and you haven’t added that ADU, you haven’t maxed it out, it’s kind of your first go-to move before you look for adding a second property.” — Gil Vaisman

“I don’t believe it’s totally passive. There’s this myth of passive investment. I think rentals are mostly passive, semi-passive, 80% passive, but they’re not fully passive.” — Gil Vaisman

The Napkin Math on ROI

People run rough numbers before they build. Here’s the version I share, for owners sitting on a low mortgage who want to know what the cash flow actually looks like.

“$150,000 is your cheapest ADU at this point. So that’s $1,500 a month. You’re bringing in a rent of at least $2,000, $2,500 a month. That’s $1,000 clean in your pocket that you didn’t have before.” — Gil Vaisman

“It’s still pretty decent return of investment in my opinion, better than whatever you can find going out there in the market. Those are like rough napkin numbers that people run.” — Gil Vaisman

From State Law to Local Law

The biggest macro trend I see in LA is a shift in how housing gets approved — and I think it’s what finally starts to solve the housing crisis.

“The biggest trend that I see right now is a move from state law to local law, where we’re kind of eliminating the NIMBYism of LA, which was what created this housing crisis in the first place. So we’re seeing more and more lax zoning laws coming from Sacramento, from state politicians, and allowing us to build four, five, six units where before it used to be a single family home.” — Gil Vaisman

Learning to Get Out of the Way

My hardest lesson was delegation. Early on I tried to do too much myself and became a cog in my own machinery. The goal now is the opposite of control.

“There’s nothing worse that you can do to someone competent than micromanage them and cut their wings off. So hire the right people, enable them, and allow them to do the best job that they can do.” — Gil Vaisman

“Right now my goal is to be useless in my own business. My job in my own business is to get myself in trouble, meaning growing. I’m the troublemaker in my own business.” — Gil Vaisman

“You never give away, for example, control of your books. That’s why I still consolidate the accounts. It’s a slippery slope in my opinion — you get disconnected.” — Gil Vaisman

AI, Hollywood, and the Case for Pivoting

Speaking from the editing world I came from, I don’t sugarcoat what AI is doing. But the same story also points to what creatives should do next.

“Absolutely, editors are gonna be replaced at some point. It’s insane what AI can do. It can craft a story, it can put things together. You used to need an army of editors to do a reality show. You’d need like 10, 13 editors per show. And now I believe with one or two, you can get by.” — Gil Vaisman

“AI is a bearer of bad news for a lot of creative industry professionals.” — Gil Vaisman

“Pivot, pivot, pivot. You have a lot of skills that are transferable. You wouldn’t think that someone could come from storytelling to building ADUs or building houses.” — Gil Vaisman

You can find Gil Vaisman and GoADU at goadu.com, and the single-family-home side of the business at vaismanconstruction.com — plus GoADU and Vaisman Construction on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. His closing advice: don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. “Do something, because you can do more than you realize.”