What does “qualified” mean for an ADU project?
In short
For an ADU, qualified means a real person confirmed five things with the homeowner on a recorded call: the unit type is decided, the scope is described, there is a start window, the homeowner wants a contractor rather than information, and the contact details are correct. The project is verified as real, not an ad click or a form-fill.
An ADU is a slow decision. A homeowner can spend a year deciding whether a second unit belongs in the backyard, and for most of that year they are a person with an idea, not a lead. For ADU work the line between idea and project sits later than for a bathroom, because more has to be chosen before anyone can price it.
Blueprint Lead treats an ADU homeowner as qualified only after a real person has talked with them and confirmed, in conversation, five things:
- Unit type decided: a detached unit, a garage conversion, or an attached addition, and the homeowner can say why.
- Scope described: roughly how big, how many bedrooms, whether it needs a full kitchen, and who it is for.
- A start window: a season or a year, and what has to happen first, whether money, a designer, or a tenant moving out.
- Intent to hire: they want a contractor to build it, not a number for a spreadsheet.
- Verified contact: the phone reaches the homeowner, the address is the property in question, and they confirmed they own it.
Which decisions has a Los Angeles ADU homeowner made before the drive is worth it?
In short
Three. They have picked a unit type, detached, garage conversion, or attached, because that sets the foundation and utility work. They know whether they want a catalog design from the City’s Standard Plan Program or a custom drawing. And they know whether the address answers to the City of Los Angeles or to the County.
Unit type comes first because it decides what you are pricing. A detached unit is new construction on a new foundation with its own utility runs. A garage conversion starts from a slab and walls that already exist, and the estimate turns on their condition. An attached unit brings the shared wall into the conversation. In the unincorporated County, the type also decides who else is at the table: Public Works says a new single-story detached unit can follow its wood-frame provisions or its Type V sheet, a two-story detached unit needs a design professional, and garage conversions get a promoted route of standardized sheets, pre-construction meetings, and a construction guide.
Catalog or custom is the second decision, and it matters most inside the City of Los Angeles. The Department of Building and Safety runs a Standard Plan Program: designs drawn by private professionals such as a California-licensed architect, admitted to the catalog after LADBS checks them against the Building, Residential, Green Building, and Energy Codes. The plans stay their designers’ property, so a homeowner who wants one buys access from the plan’s owner, and the City says a design may or may not be customizable. Every catalog plan still gets a final LADBS look at the specific lot, its clearances, and its soil. A homeowner who names a catalog plan has handed you a drawing.
The third is less a decision than a fact the homeowner either knows or does not: which desk the address answers to. Inside the City of Los Angeles that is LADBS. In unincorporated Los Angeles County it is County Public Works, Building and Safety. The County publishes its own limits: an ADU up to 1,200 square feet and a junior ADU up to 500, each with a kitchen or kitchenette and its own entrance, a fire-rated wall where an ADU is attached, and six feet of separation where it is detached. A homeowner who says “County” has told you which rule set you are pricing against.
What should an estimator ask in the first five minutes?
In short
Ask the questions that change the price first. Where is the address and which desk does it answer to, what type of unit, is there a drawing or a catalog plan yet, what is the unit for, what season do they want to start, and what happens if the estimate comes back higher than they hoped.
The qualification call has already confirmed the five basics, and the notes tell you what the homeowner said. Your first five minutes are for what moves the estimate, not for repeating the call. In roughly this order:
- Which desk does the address answer to, the City of Los Angeles or the County? If the homeowner is not sure, the address settles it.
- Detached, garage conversion, or attached, and why that one? The reason tells you how firm the choice is.
- Is there a drawing yet? A designer, a catalog plan from the City’s program, or nothing on paper. If a catalog plan, which one, and can it change?
- What is the unit for? A parent, a tenant, an adult child, an office. The use shapes the kitchen, the bath, and the finishes.
- How big, and how many bedrooms? In the County the ceiling is published. In the City, ask what the lot leaves room for.
- What season do they want to start, and what has to happen first?
- Where will the lot be hard? Slope, a rear alley, a garage no truck can reach, a mature tree, a shared fence.
- What happens if the number comes back higher than they hoped? A smaller unit is a real answer. Silence needs a second conversation before a drive.
What does a Los Angeles ADU estimate cover that other metros’ estimates do not?
In short
Four things come up in Los Angeles that other metros skip: two review desks under one name, a catalog of City-checked designs the homeowner may hold, rebuild lots in the Eaton and Palisades fire areas where a second unit is one piece of a larger job, and SB 9, a different route to a second unit on a single-family lot.
Jurisdiction comes first in Los Angeles and almost nowhere else, because one name covers two systems. An address in Sherman Oaks answers to LADBS and City Planning. An unincorporated pocket a few miles away answers to County Public Works and Regional Planning, with different forms and different plan checkers. A homeowner who has asked which one applies has saved you a wrong assumption.
Catalog plans are the second difference. Inside the City, a homeowner may arrive holding a design from the Standard Plan Program, and then you are not sketching, you are fitting a checked drawing to a specific lot. The City is explicit that soil can force site-specific foundation or structural work even under a catalog plan, so the walk still matters, but the estimate has a starting point most metros do not offer.
Fire-zone adjacency is the third. Altadena and the Santa Monica Mountains communities rebuild through the County. Pacific Palisades sits inside the City and rebuilds through the City’s own recovery route. The County reviews a like-for-like replacement, one of the same size, location, and purpose as what burned, on a quicker track. A new second unit replaces nothing, so on a fire lot the house and the ADU may travel different review paths. Ask whether the ADU is the whole project or one piece of a rebuild, and which comes first.
SB 9 is the fourth. State law gives the owner of a single-family lot a separate route to a two-unit development or an urban lot split, with its own rules and review, and some Los Angeles homeowners use the letters ADU to mean that. When a homeowner says “a second house,” ask which one they mean before you price either.
Transfer or appointment for ADU work?
In short
Many ADU contractors choose appointments, because the ADU sale is made on the property walk: setbacks, slope, the garage, where the utilities run. A pre-set appointment puts that walk on the calendar. A live transfer suits a shop with someone free to answer, take the details, and book the walk while the homeowner is still on the line.
The choice is about your intake, not the homeowner. An ADU estimate cannot be finished from a phone. Someone has to stand in the yard and see the slope, the fence lines, the tree that is not on the survey, the garage no truck can reach, and the meter that will need an upgrade. That walk is where a homeowner decides whether to trust you with a second building, which is why many ADU contractors ask for appointments: the call ends with a time on your calendar and a homeowner who expects you.
A live transfer moves the same qualified homeowner onto your phone while they are still talking about the project. It fits a shop with a person free to answer, ask the questions above, and book the walk before the call ends. If your estimator is under a house in Van Nuys when the phone rings, an appointment is the better fit.
Both arrive one contractor per lead, priced per lead by a rep for the metro and trade, billed weekly, with no long-term contracts. No page can promise volume. A rep will say what ADU delivery in Los Angeles looks like this week.
See alsoHow pre-set appointments workHow live call transfers work
What is not a qualified ADU lead, and what happens when one gets through?
In short
Four callers do not count: a homeowner who is only curious, a renter who does not own the property, an owner who wants a price and nothing else, and an owner who has not chosen a unit type. If one reaches you anyway, flag it. The credit terms are written into the weekly agreement, not argued lead by lead.
The clearest way to describe a qualified ADU lead is to name what it is not. A curiosity call is a homeowner who wants to know what an ADU involves before deciding whether they want one, a year from being a lead. A renter is not a lead at all, however sincere, because they cannot hire you to build on land they do not own. An owner who wants only a price is collecting numbers, sometimes for a decision already made against building. And an owner who has not chosen between detached, conversion, and attached has chosen a wish, not a project.
The qualification call is built to catch all four before delivery, and most of the time it does. But a call is a conversation, and a person can say what they think you want to hear. When a lead reaches you and turns out to be one of these, flag it. The credit terms are written into the weekly agreement before the first lead lands, so what counts as a miss is settled in advance. A lost bid is not a miss. A homeowner who chose another contractor was a qualified lead you did not win.
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