Live Magna listings, filtered
Homes with an ADU or casita in Magna.
Magna listings with an accessory dwelling unit, whether that is a basement apartment, a detached casita, or an attached mother-in-law suite, fed straight from the MLS and sorted newest first, with a clear read on what makes one legal here and what to verify before you write an offer.
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Newest first
The newest ADU and casita listings.
Fed straight from the local MLS and filtered to homes that note an accessory dwelling unit, whether that is a basement apartment, a detached casita, or an attached mother-in-law suite. New Magna listings appear here as they list, and sold homes drop off. The read on what makes one legal is just below.
Buying here
Sort permitted from simply built.
A second kitchen and a separate entrance do not by themselves make a basement apartment a legal unit, so the real question is whether it is permitted and what the parcel's zoning allows, records the Municipal Services District holds for Magna. Tell me what setup you need and the Magna-area partner agent I work with can pull the permit history on any home you flag.
Selling here
Own a Magna home with a documented accessory unit?
Buyers on this page want a basement apartment, an attached suite, or a casita with the paperwork to back it up. List it with the Magna-area partner agent I connect you with and put it in front of exactly that search.
Listing information comes from the local MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
The local read
What an accessory dwelling really means in Magna.
An accessory dwelling is a property feature, not a promise. On a Magna listing it means a secondary living space that can function on its own: a second kitchen, its own bathroom, a separate exterior entrance, and sometimes a separate utility meter. The words move around. A basement apartment is a lower level built out that way, a casita is usually a detached unit set apart from the house, and a mother-in-law suite is usually an attached apartment on the main or upper floor. The search shows up across the Salt Lake Valley for two honest reasons, room for extended family under one roof and a rentable suite where the unit is legal, and both turn on the same homework, which is whether the space is actually permitted.
Magna is reasonable ground for this search, and the form it takes here is mostly the basement apartment. The valley frost line is deep, so foundations go down and a full basement is the norm, and Magna's middle rings, the postwar ramblers and the 1960s-through-1990s split-levels roughly between 7200 West and 8400 West, carry a deep stock of full and daylight basements that already double the living space. Adding a second kitchen and a private entrance to that kind of basement is exactly the conversion most of these listings describe. The newer single-family plans on the southwest Oquirrh bench toward the foothills can carry built-out lower levels too, and a daylight or walkout lot makes a separate entrance far easier to do well. A fully detached casita is the rarer shape, since it takes a lot with room for a second structure, so treat one as a find rather than an expectation.
Here is the part that matters more than the photos. A finished basement is not the same as a legal apartment, and neither is a converted room over the garage or a guest building out back. A second kitchen and an outside door do not make a unit conforming on their own, and a great many existing accessory units in older Utah housing were finished over the years without permits or were built before today's rules. That is not a reason to walk away, but it is the reason to verify rather than assume. Two questions decide everything: whether the unit is permitted with Magna City and whether it has its own legal egress, meaning a code-sized window well or door out of every sleeping room below grade. Magna is unusual in how permits are handled, since the township contracts permitting, planning, and zoning out to the Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District, so the records you want live with the MSD, not a Magna counter, and what an accessory dwelling is allowed to be depends on that parcel's zoning.
Treat any income angle with the same caution. I will not quote you a rent number or a payment number on a page like this, because what a unit could earn depends on its legal status, the specific space, and rules that change, and a non-conforming unit cannot be counted on at all. What I can do is point you at the right stock. If a true separate suite is the goal, the middle-ring ramblers and split-levels are the natural hunting ground, so the single-story page is a useful next stop, and the bigger two-story plans on the two-story page sometimes carry the deepest lower levels. If you only want the extra square footage and not a second kitchen, the homes with a basement page is the wider search, and because a separate entrance is easier on a bigger lot with no shared-amenity rules over it, the no-HOA page pairs naturally with this one. Earlier in the process than show me listings? Start with the Magna guide, and when a home below reads right, that is the moment to reach out.
What counts as an accessory dwelling
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The form it takes: in Magna most of these are basement apartments, since a full basement is the norm in this stock. Attached mother-in-law suites turn up in the bigger plans too, and a detached casita is rarer, so read the listing for where the space actually sits.
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Second kitchen: a full or kitchenette setup is the core marker. A finished basement or a spare suite with no kitchen is just extra space, not a separate unit, so read the listing for the actual layout.
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Separate entrance: the second front door this search is really about. A private exterior entry, often a walk-down or a side door, is what makes the space usable on its own rather than a through-the-house extension. On a sloped Oquirrh-bench lot it is often a true grade-level walkout.
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Separate egress: every sleeping room below grade needs a code-sized window well or a door to the outside. This is a safety item and a legality item at once, and it is the first thing to confirm in person.
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Separate utilities: some units have their own gas or electric meter, or at least split HVAC. It is a convenience, not proof of legality, so note it but do not read it as a permit.
The local map
Where the accessory units actually are.
Homes with a second living space turn up across Magna, but the forms concentrate in a few patterns, and the basement apartment is by far the dominant one. Here is where to look, and the due-diligence note attached to each.
The middle rings
The postwar ramblers and 1960s-through-1990s split-levels roughly between 7200 West and 8400 West, from 2700 South down to about 4100 South, are the bulk of Magna's housing and sit over the deepest stock of full and daylight basements in town. This is the most likely place to find a real separate suite, and conventional construction makes it the easiest to finance and inspect. It is also where a basement finished without a permit is most likely, so verification matters most here.
Split-level floor plans
Split-level is a genuine Magna signature, and the layout lends itself to a lower level with its own grade-level door. The split design can put a private entrance just a half-flight down, which is why so many conversions started here. Confirm the egress windows on the bedrooms below before you read it as a legal suite.
The historic townsite grid
The early-1900s miner cottages and bungalows on the old grid around 2700 South, roughly 8400 West to 9200 West, hold the county's most affordable detached homes, and some carry a built-out basement. These pre-1970s homes also carry the seismic homework from the 2020 quake, so on this stock you order a structural inspection and check the basement work was done and inspected, not just finished.
The southwest Oquirrh bench
The 2020s single-family new construction on the growth front toward the foothills, near the Little Valley area off about 8700 West, is more likely to have any basement finish done with permits. A newer build still gets verified, but the records are easier to pull and the systems are young.
Daylight and walkout lots
On the sloped bench and foothill lots, a lower level can open to grade with full windows and a real door, which is the ideal setup for a separate suite that lives like its own floor rather than a dark basement. These are less common in Magna's older flats but worth watching for on the bench.
Larger subdivision lots
The bigger 1980s-90s subdivision homes east and south of the townsite often have the deepest and tallest basements, which makes a comfortable second kitchen and a real bedroom downstairs more workable than in a low older cottage basement. These larger two-story plans are also where an attached mother-in-law suite is most likely, and the roomier lots are the rare place a detached casita has space to sit. Lot size and ceiling height are what make the space livable as its own unit.
Before you tour: what to actually check
Is it permitted: ask the listing agent for the permit history and confirm the unit's status with Magna City, which means the Municipal Services District for Magna. A second kitchen and a side door do not make a unit legal on their own.
Zoning on the parcel: what is allowed depends on the specific parcel's zoning, so confirm an accessory unit is permitted there before you assume the lower level can be a separate dwelling. This varies across Magna.
Egress on every bedroom: each sleeping room below grade needs a code-sized egress window and well, or a door to the outside. Look at the actual window wells, not just the listing photos.
Conforming vs. existing: many older accessory units in Magna are non-conforming, finished before today's rules or without permits. Understand exactly what you are buying and what can and cannot be relied on.
Older-grid seismic check: on a pre-1970s townsite home, the basement work and the structure both deserve a hard look after the 2020 quake. Order a structural inspection, not just a general one, and ask about any retrofit records.
Separate systems and the rest: check whether the kitchen, HVAC, and any meter are genuinely separate and inspected, confirm whether the home is on the Magna Water District, and on any older home date the roof, furnace, electrical panel, and sewer lateral.
Want a real accessory dwelling without the guesswork?
Tell me your budget, the part of Magna you like, whether you want a basement apartment, an attached suite, or a detached casita, and whether you need a fully permitted, conforming unit or are open to an existing space you would verify and possibly bring up to code. I will connect you with a trusted Magna-area partner agent for the on-the-ground work and stay on the file for the homework and the financing, with straight answers about which spaces are legal units and which are just finished basements with a door.
Selling a Magna home with a basement apartment, a casita, or an attached accessory suite? The buyers reading this page want exactly that. List it with the Magna-area partner agent I connect you with, and your home gets featured across MovingUtah, on the pages they are already reading.
Quick answers
ADU and casita shopping, answered.
It is a secondary living space that can function on its own, and the listings use several words for it. In Magna the most common form by far is a basement apartment, a lower level built out with a second kitchen, its own bathroom, and a separate exterior entrance. A casita usually means a detached unit set apart from the main house, and a mother-in-law suite usually means an attached accessory apartment on the main or upper level. All of them are property features describing the space, nothing more. The big thing to know is that a second kitchen and an outside door do not make a unit legal on their own, so the real work is confirming whether it is permitted and conforming and what the specific parcel's zoning allows. In Magna that means checking with the Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District, which handles the township's permitting and zoning.
Some are and some are not, which is exactly why you verify rather than assume. An accessory dwelling has to be permitted to be treated as a separate dwelling, what is allowed depends on the specific parcel's zoning, so it can differ block to block, and many existing basement apartments and converted suites in older Magna homes were finished over the years without permits or were built before today's rules, so they are non-conforming. That is not a dealbreaker by itself, but you need to know which one you are buying. Confirm the zoning, the permit history, the unit's status, and the egress independently before you rely on it, and I will help line up those checks.
Most often in the middle rings, the postwar ramblers and the 1960s-through-1990s split-levels roughly between 7200 West and 8400 West, which sit over Magna's deepest stock of full and daylight basements and carry most of the basement apartments. Attached suites turn up in the bigger two-story plans and larger subdivision homes, and the newer single-family product on the southwest Oquirrh bench can carry built-out lower levels too, where a daylight or walkout lot makes the space live like its own floor. Some older townsite cottages have a finished basement as well, with the added seismic homework that comes with pre-1970s brick. A fully detached casita is the rarest form, because it takes a lot with room for a second structure. The live listings above are the honest count on any given week.
Only where the unit is legal, and that is the whole point of the verification. A permitted, conforming accessory dwelling is a different thing from a non-conforming space that happens to have a kitchen, the rules around accessory dwellings and rentals can change, and what is allowed depends on the parcel's zoning, so this is a question to confirm for the specific property, not to assume from the listing. Because Magna contracts permitting and zoning to the Municipal Services District, that is where the answer lives. I will not put a rent figure on a page like this, because it depends entirely on the unit's legal status and the specifics, but I can connect you with a local agent who will get you straight answers on what is allowed there.
Egress is a legal, code-sized way out of every below-grade sleeping room, usually an egress window with a window well sized for a person to climb out, or a door to the outside. It is both a safety requirement and a piece of what makes a basement bedroom or apartment count as legal living space. It matters most on the basement units that make up most of this search, and it is the first thing to confirm in person, because a room marketed as a bedroom downstairs is not really one without it. We check the actual window wells, not just the photos.
Tell me the budget, the part of town, and whether you need a fully permitted suite or are open to an existing space to verify, and I will connect you with a Magna-area partner agent and flag matching listings as they go live. These are a narrow slice in Magna and they do not sit long, so it pays to be ready when one lists and to have the zoning and permit questions lined up before you tour.