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Unlocking ADU Investment Strategies in California’s Housing Market

By December 23, 2025Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this conversation, Claire Kasaian, the community director at Zinc Financial, discusses the unique position of Zinc in the California real estate market, focusing on one to four unit properties. She shares insights on investor strategies, the rise of ADUs, and the shift towards ground-up construction in response to the affordable housing crisis. Claire also provides an overview of home prices in California, particularly in Fresno, and explains the different types of loans available for real estate investors, including fix and flip and bridge loans. The conversation highlights the diverse profiles of investors in California and the current dynamics of the housing market.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Claire Kasaian (00:00)
    And then I think community is what we call it is 11 counties throughout central California. So pretty much all of the Central Valley and then Santa Clara County and slow counties. And so we’re able to offer really high leverages. ⁓ I am a direct point of contact for anyone who’s in the community. We’re really trying to build. ⁓

    essentially a community of people who are in the real estate space. So whether you’re an investor, you’re a broker, realtor, wholesaler and construction, we want to create that space and host events where people can come and network and make friendships, build those relationships, and then they’re able to help each other out as well.

    Dylan Silver (02:12)
    Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest Claire Kasaian is the community director at Zinc Financial. She oversees engagement across 11 counties in California. Zinc is a lender for single family investors in the one to four unit space. Claire, welcome to the show.

    Claire Kasaian (02:30)
    Thank you. Thank you for the introduction.

    Dylan Silver (02:33)
    Thanks for coming on here, great to meet you. And we were talking before hopping on here about what makes Zinc unique. But before we get into that, I wanna ask you how you got started with Zinc and in the real estate space.

    Claire Kasaian (02:48)
    Yeah, so actually, so I’m born and raised in Fresno, California. When my family originally came here and we had farmland and now that’s commercial property. ⁓ There’s several businesses on that. So I kind of grew up around seeing the back end of commercial real estate ⁓ and being or having my family be property owners ⁓ and then moved to LA, kind of went through school and all of that was more in marketing and advertising and then

    in or I guess it would be this past May I was reached out to by Zinc when they were really forming and starting the Zinc community and was recruited and now I’m here.

    Dylan Silver (03:30)
    get a little bit granular if we can about some of what makes Zinc unique. And we were talking about this before hopping on here. You know, being able to raise the capital, being hyper-focused on California, and then identifying that one to four unit space. To me, this is a unique niche to be in because it’s clear you’ve identified, Zinc has identified exactly what they’re going to be best at and be dominant in their space.

    Claire Kasaian (04:00)
    Yeah, Fixed and Flips are really our bread and butter. We do those all the time. We’re really focused, really just in California.

    And then I think community is what we call it is 11 counties throughout central California. So pretty much all of the Central Valley and then Santa Clara County and slow counties. And so we’re able to offer really high leverages. ⁓ I am a direct point of contact for anyone who’s in the community. We’re really trying to build. ⁓

    essentially a community of people who are in the real estate space. So whether you’re an investor, you’re a broker, realtor, wholesaler and construction, we want to create that space and host events where people can come and network and make friendships, build those relationships, and then they’re able to help each other out as well.

    Dylan Silver (05:35)
    Now when we talk about…

    the different types of investor strategies in the one or four unit space, fix and flipping. I would say the one that gets a lot of attention, but you’ve also got STRs, you’ve got buy and hold, you’ve got corporate housing and one to four units. So that could be anything from a single family home to a quadplex. ⁓ Other than fix and flip loans, I know right now there’s a lot of development. We were talking before hopping on here in like ADUs, right?

    of housing as well. Are you seeing more ⁓ loans but also more investor activity across some of these other spaces as well in addition to fix and flip?

    Claire Kasaian (06:19)
    Definitely ADUs. ⁓ I’m personally working on a project where we had a borrower who did a fixed inflip with us and now is trying to build ADUs in the backyard. And we’re able to fund that. And so definitely an uptick in ADUs. And one thing that I’ve also noticed, ⁓ there’s been so many investors who so many people have gotten started in real estate and they’re wanting to be investors ⁓ that now people are almost kind of struggling to find properties. And so we’ve seen something

    I’ve seen very interestingly, I was talking with our CFO about this, where there’ll be two houses on one lot and they’ll try and split up the lot. So they’ll only be buying one house on the lot. And so that’s something that’s very new that we’re seeing. That’s something we’re not really able to do. We’ll lend on the lot. We won’t lend on just one house or one building that’s on the lot.

    Dylan Silver (07:15)
    When we talk about the affordable housing crisis and people in California and so many states, I’m originally from Northern New Jersey, trying to find a way into home ownership, one of the solutions in places where you can is development. And I’ve seen that. ⁓

    being licensed in Texas as a realtor, there is now, I would say, increased interest from newer developers in developing an infill lot or developing one or two homes. Are you seeing any of that in California, this ground up construction? I’m worried as maybe there might have been ⁓ more fix and flip happening in years past. Now I’m seeing more ground up construction happening.

    Claire Kasaian (07:59)
    Yeah, actually kind of both. in specifically around the Fresno area, I believe there’s around 40 developments being built. ⁓ A lot of people from the Bay Area or from L.A. where housing is very unaffordable, it’s really hard to buy a house. People are coming now to the Central Valley because it’s much more affordable. But then also somehow that’s making fix and flips more. ⁓ People are

    doing more fix and flips. And I’m I’m still trying to figure out that streamline of how that works. But it does make sense in the way that if those those ⁓ developments, they have a lot of first time home buyer perks. But then if it’s a family and maybe they’re not first time home buyers or they can’t get into a new development, then these fix and flips are able to give people nice housing that’s not super expensive. It’s not a brand new build.

    Dylan Silver (08:29)
    Yeah.

    Claire Kasaian (08:56)
    So there is that kind of streamline.

    Dylan Silver (08:59)
    In Fresno, in the Bay Area, what’s the average price of let’s call it like a rental grade home, a three bedroom, two bathroom home? Of course, there’s going to be some variance, but are we talking like $1.2 billion? Are we talking $800,000? Because I know in Texas, you can get a brand new like D.R. Hortner-Lennar home in many cases for like 300 grand, which is mind blowing. It kind of makes it difficult to flip when you’ve got brand new homes at that point.

    Claire Kasaian (09:27)
    Yeah, I know one of the newer developments that’s coming up, there’s different levels, I guess, of the homes and the lowest level beginner home is I think around 350 to 400. I’m not 100 % sure what it would be kind of in the Bay Area. I know a lot more than that. I mean, I’ve seen some houses that were fixed that.

    we’ve learned for fix and flips and they’ll buy them at 150, 200,000 and then they’re sold at kind of that same price, the 300 or 350.

    Dylan Silver (10:01)
    This

    is good to hear because I think a lot of folks when they’re thinking of California, they’re thinking of like Orange County and they’re thinking of areas where the average home price is…

    above $1.2-1.4 million and they’re thinking, I can’t afford to live in California. But then hearing you talk about this, it does seem like there’s other options other than that. And I think when we talk about flippers specifically being active in these other areas, there’s plenty of deals to be had, especially if you’ve got the knowledge of the different markets within California.

    Claire Kasaian (11:14)
    Yeah. then it’s, I mean, not to be biased, because I am originally from Fresno and born and raised in the Valley, but we’re an hour and a half away from the gates of Yosemite. We’re two and a half hours to three hours from the Bay Area and our closest beach, and then three and a half to four hours from LA. So it really is, even though our summers are very hot, it is a great area and you’re able to get to a lot of different areas or different places in California really quickly.

    Dylan Silver (11:41)
    I’ve got a granular Fresno question. Forgive me for being a little bit ignorant here. What’s the culture like in Fresno? What’s the main industry? I’m thinking California. There’s probably a lot of tech. What’s Fresno like?

    Claire Kasaian (11:55)
    Everyone’s a farmer. It’s a lot of agriculture. We’re starting to get some more tech, but it still very much is a lot of agriculture.

    Dylan Silver (12:05)
    Okay, so I completely opposite spectrum. That’s good to hear as well. Again, when I think of California, I’m all automatically going in one direction. it’s agricultural. Speaking of agricultural, are there interests from that community, the farm community, right?

    in investing in some of these other investment avenues when we talk about like ground up construction or even putting ADUs onto the land perhaps as a way to generate a second source of income for themselves.

    Claire Kasaian (12:38)
    You know what, that’s a good question. I would love to learn more about that. That’s something that we, so at Zinc we really won’t lend on anything over two acres because once you get over two acres, that’s when sometimes you get into wells and septic, you get, depending if it’s in a, like if it’s surrounded by ag, you get into, you have to start getting into that territory and there’s different laws and regulations. So we really try. ⁓

    and stay two acres and under. If it’s a well, we’ll make an exception. Septic is a money pit ⁓ that can go, that can be so much money, so add up so quickly. ⁓ But we really will try and focus in on an area where there’s a Starbucks nearby or there is a little bit, some sort of a community. ⁓ We try not to do anything that’s like right next to railroad tracks or across the street from a cemetery that’s in the middle of nowhere.

    We try and keep it so it’s something, ⁓ house that like a blue collar, true middle class family would want to live in.

    Dylan Silver (13:46)
    When I was living in Texas, I lived on a ranch, multiple acres, we had septic, I was living in an ADU, and this got me thinking like, hey, this is this huge opportunity out here for more of this. And I don’t actually know if there is more interest from folks in more rural areas in doing that type of thing, but I do know that…

    Certainly, it’s not getting any cheaper tone ranches in Texas. I imagine it’s the same thing in California. So more people are thinking like real estate investors. I do want to ask you, is there a typical avatar or profile of someone ⁓ who is an investor in California? Or is it across the board? Is it people who are full-time investors? Is it people who are part-time? Do they have certain tendencies looking at certain markets? Or is it…

    you know, different for each person.

    Claire Kasaian (14:40)
    It’s across the board. I have some investors that I work with who are fresh out of college. They’re general contractors. They want to get started investing. We have people who’ve been doing it their entire lives and this is truly what they do for a living or people who have other full-time jobs and they’re doing this on the side. We work with some people who do 10 plus flips a year to people who do one to two a year.

    Dylan Silver (15:49)
    want to, if we can, dive into the different types of products that are available for folks. And then if we can, a little one-on-one on what each one is and what it maybe takes to get qualified. Let’s start with fix and flip. What is a fix and flip loan? What’s the typical timeline? And what does it take for someone to get qualified for a fix and flip loan with Zinc?

    Claire Kasaian (16:10)
    Yes, so in our Zinc community, we really streamline it. It’s a quick process. Normally, once we get all necessary documents from the borrower, and we really only require your loan app driver’s license, entity docs if you’re closing under an entity, and then we have a rehab SOW. ⁓ And then any insurance or escrow contacts that you want to use. So we try and keep it really quick. Once we get all those documents, we can normally fund within seven to 10 business days.

    Our loans are normally nine month terms. We can go up to 12. So a fix and flip loan will be the same thing as a bridge with rehab. So a bridge with rehab is when you start as a fix and flip, but then you’re going to hold it and turn it into a rental property.

    Dylan Silver (16:57)
    Now, I was unaware that Fix and Flip, nine months seems like more than enough time to do a flip. Is that typically the timeline or are people shooting for shorter than that?

    Claire Kasaian (17:08)
    People want to do shorter than that because the longer they hold on to the property, the more money they’re losing. They’re having to pay interest every month. So they’re really trying to get in and out of them as quick as they can.

    Dylan Silver (17:19)
    When we talk about bridge loans, and thank you for bringing that up because I’ve always been curious, you know, how these loans really, what happens? Because you go into it thinking I’m gonna do a flip, the property’s sitting there, something happens, there’s increased time that you’re needing to hold onto it. Is there one reason or a handful of reasons why people start looking at bridge loans or is it different in every case? I’m curious.

    what your perspective is on how investors find themselves needing a bridge along.

    Claire Kasaian (17:50)
    At least for us in our situation with our investors, they’ll do a bridge loan. So there’s a stabilized bridge and then a bridge with rehab. They’ll do, so a DSCR, debt service coverage ratio is when you’re going to have a rental property. So we, you can’t, or at least we don’t fund rehab with a DSCR. So you do a bridge with rehab and then that loan bridges. So a fixed and flipped loan, and then it bridges into a DSCR. So if they needed to do rehab on the property, that’s when they would do a bridge with rehab.

    Dylan Silver (18:18)
    Got it.

    Claire Kasaian (18:18)
    And then

    there’s a stabilized bridge where there’s no rehab. It’s just they’re kind of wanting to hold on to the property a little bit. Or if they are going to be doing the rehab themselves or for whatever reason, they just need to hold the property for a few months and then and then put it into a DSCR. There’s a few reasons why they would want to do that. ⁓ One reason that we probably see the most often is because they don’t want to use our rehab financing.

    ⁓ or they have someone else that they want to go with and so then they are just holding the property but we’re doing the loan for the property. They’re paying us the monthly interest payments and then that’ll go into a DSCR and then we’ll help them fund their long-term loan.

    Dylan Silver (19:02)
    Thank you for that explanation because I’ve heard people talk about bridge loans as if it’s something where it’s like their backs up against the wall and they have to get the bridge loan. it’s clear from the way you broke it down that this might be something that investors utilize intentionally to bridge the gap between the rehab portion of it and when they’re long-term holding it.

    Claire Kasaian (19:23)
    Yeah, exactly. And I’m sure there are, I mean, there’s definitely circumstances where investors or people will be backed up against the wall. And we hope we never, like, I hope that would never happen to anyone. And I know it does, but at least how we sell our bridge loans is that we’re helping them, we’re giving them a space to hold their loan until they’re ready for the DSCR.

    Dylan Silver (19:46)
    I want to ask you if I can maybe a granular question about ⁓ how long these flips are sitting in California. I’ve seen them in Texas sit for months. Beautiful flips, which is not good. But I’ve seen some investors who’ve been able to identify niches that have been successful for them. I know someone who’s gone from flips into infill lots and ground up construction on a deal by deal basis.

    Claire Kasaian (19:59)
    Yeah.

    Dylan Silver (20:16)
    flying off the shelves in the markets that you’re active in? Are some of them sitting? What is it like once people have done the rehab and they’re ready to take a property to market?

    Claire Kasaian (20:26)
    I know the average days on market right now is around 31 days. ⁓ So some properties are going to fly off. They’ll be sold within a week or two and then some ⁓ will sit longer. I think it depends also where the property is, what’s been done to the property, obviously of course what the selling price is. So there’s a few different variables. But yeah, the average day on market is around 31 days right now.

    Dylan Silver (20:47)
    Yeah.

    That sure beats 90 or 120 days. So 31, that sounds like a good exit for me. We are coming up on time here though, Claire. Where can folks go if they’re interested in reaching out to you and your team or they’d to get some more information about Zinc Financial?

    Claire Kasaian (21:07)
    Yeah, of course. So we have our Zinc Financial website, is ZincFinancial.com. My phone number is 559-389-7101. And then if anyone wants to email me, my email is Claire, C-L-A-I-R-E dot K at Zinc dot net. And then Zinc is Z-I-N-C.

    Dylan Silver (21:26)
    Claire, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

    Claire Kasaian (21:29)
    Thank you, Dylan, I appreciate it.

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