Newbie Question About Turning a Single-Family into a Duplex

[Odille Remmert]

Hi :)

Just getting started. We've found a property that may work. 

1. It's a 3-bed, 1 bath single-family house, with a large finished basement. The basement currently has: living room, bedroom, and two more separate rooms (one with the washer and dryer in it, and one with a fridge in it, that looks like it's been used as a dining room) - both of those extra rooms have plenty of space to be made into a bathroom and a kitchen.

2. The basement needs an egress window installed.

3. The house has a side entrance off the driveway that leads to the stairs going down to the basement, to the right, and the kitchen of the main house, straight ahead.

So, here's what we're thinking of doing:

1. Move into the house ourselves (we're renting at the moment, and are planning to start our real estate investing with a house-hack).

2. Put an egress window into the bedroom of the basement, and turn the basement into a self-contained apartment by putting in a bathroom and kitchen.

3. Make the side-door a separate entrance dedicated to the basement. 

4. Rent out that basement apartment as a house-hack.

5. Once we find another property we'd like to live in, move out and rent this one as a duplex.

My Questions:

1. The Realtor said I'd need to check the zoning for turning this house into duplex, by going to Peoria County Zoning website ... however, I have no idea of what I'm looking for - or looking at (being new to all of this). I've spent quite a lot of time searching, but can't seem to find information that indicates whether or not this property is "zoned" for multi-family - can someone point me in the right direction... or am I over my head, and if so, who would I talk to, to get some help with this?

2. Would we need a permit to just put in the egress window?

3. Would we need a permit to put in the bathroom and kitchen if we were going to house-hack... and then rent the whole house out as a 4-bed to a single family when we move out?

The answers to all of these questions will, of course, help to determine whether it's worth buying this one or not. :)

Thanks v much in advance.