changing a 4 apartment with 1 garage building into 5 apartments

[Lynnette E.]

If one owned a 4 plex that could legally be converted to  5 plex would you do it?  I know it changes it from being appraised using residential vs commercial standards.  But I do not know if this would be better or not.

The property has 2 apartments upstairs each with their own electrical.  It has 2 apartments and a garage downstairs all sharing intermixed electrical.  The garage is attached through a staircase and door to one of the upstairs apartments...but the electrical for the garage is not wired through that apartment's meter.

All water is common. 

The garage already has a small, but complete galley kitchen and a full bathroom.  So the actual garage area could be made into a studio apartment pretty easily.  Or I could do a sliding wooden wall /doors between the bedroom and living room for some privacy, like in smaller Hawaiian type timeshares.

The upstairs apartments are 2 bed, one downstairs is 2 bed, one is 1 bed.

For me its a buy and hold/rental income property.

Thoughts?  Things to consider?

[Daniel Cullen]

I like your idea in general. One thing to consider is the potential impact on your property insurance policy. You may want to check with your carrier as part of your due diligence.