Thoughts on Non-Conforming Purchase

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What's your experience with buying a non-conforming property? We are under contract on a former SFH in Oregon's Yamhill County. The property has been operating as a Duplex for decades, well before the city zoning plan came into effect in the 80s.

When we found it we thought it was in a multifamily zone and hoped to properly finish out the second floor, effectively creating a third unit. Turns out it's actually in a SFH zone by half a block and the city had no record of it being a Duplex.

The numbers are already making us hedge away from this property because to us it really only makes sense (at our current contracted price) if we can make it a triplex. My big worry is even if we figure out a way to make this work for us today, if we had to liquidate it in 3-5 years we would have a hard time getting anything out of it that we put into it in terms of modest updates which it sorely needs. 

Am I looking at this in the right way or being overly cautious?