Four steps, and the first one is free.
The whole program is built around one idea: the report is allowed to say no. That is what makes a yes worth something, and it is why nothing on this site promises approval, buildability, value, price or timeline.
You send the address
Two minutes on the request form: your property, which of the three projects you're thinking about (or "not sure"), a few things you already know about the lot, and how to reach you. If a real estate broker sent you, their name goes on page one.
We research the lot
Our system pulls the county parcel record, your city's adopted zoning and development code, FEMA flood maps, mapped wetlands and critical areas, slope, soils, building footprints and utility service — and applies the rules for the project you asked about: the ADU rules for a backyard home or an in-law suite, the rules for the house itself for an addition.
Your report arrives within the hour
Four pages, decision on page one, plus a technical annex with every source and date. If anything on your lot is unclear — an odd parcel, a mapped hazard, a jurisdiction we haven't confirmed — the report is held for a person to look at first, and we tell you, with a same-business-day target.
If it looks promising, we reach out
Once. A HousUp project manager asks whether you have questions and, if you want to go further, walks the lot with you before anything is proposed — because access and trees are the two things a desk study cannot see. If you don't want to go further, say so and we stop calling.
Then, only if you choose: design, a fixed price, and the build
The design and engineering phase — survey, architecture, civil and structural engineering — ends in a fixed-price proposal from the builder named in it. In current proposals that phase is a line of the total price, not a fee on top; permits, taxes and utility fees sit outside it. Design through move-in for a backyard home generally runs seven to fourteen months.
If a Realtor sent you
Your agent requested the report through the HousUp partner program and their name is on it. If you build, a referral fee is paid to their brokerage firm — never to them personally, because Washington law requires it that way — and you'll sign a written disclosure saying so before any agreement. It does not change your price, and you are free to use any contractor.
If you found us yourself
Nothing changes. The report is the same, the follow-up is the same, and the honest answer is the same. You don't need an agent to ask.