Renovation project for a house built in 1920 zoned for commercial

[Liz Stewart]

This is our first commercial property which we bought 3 years ago in DFW,TX. It is a 2 stories (2600 sq ft) house built in 1920's and zoned to commercial. The house is NOT in the historic district and is NOT a historic landmark. When we bought it, there was a tenant inside and they just moved out. The condition of the property is not very good and we plan to renovate . The general idea is to renovate the kitchen with new cabinet & counter top; Update all the restrooms; patch up all walls; remove pop-corn ceiling, repaint whole house; re-sand and re-stain all the hardwood floor; some plumbing work; install can lights in all rooms; move some lighting fixtures; add/move switches and wire for Ethernet. Would like to ask for professional advice on the following:

1. There is a local contractor we used on another project before who told me we DON'T need to pull permit. What is your opinion on this? I am shock he said that, esp he knows the code very well and knows most of the city inspectors

2. There may be other work done in this house in the years before and not sure if they pulled permit before. What if the previous owners did NOT pull permit, then how will this affect our work?

3. Should we do the above renovation BEFORE we even list it for lease? The whole property is not very presentable now and may give bad impression to tenants. But if we do renovation now, we have no idea what business will rent the property and whether their need will be different from what we are doing. FYI, there is a lot of lawyer, medical offices, yoga studio, chiropractor who lease property in the area.

4. How much do you think it's reasonable to spend on this type of renovation??