House Hacking a 1917 House

[Greg Hansen]

I’m looking into a 1917 duplex in a very attractive part of Jacksonville, FL. The property is around the corner from a strip of several go-to restaurants and bars for the young professional sort of crowd.

The place is a mess and needs major, major work — bugs cracks in the walls, significant water damage in the kitchen floor that has led to dry-rot in floor joists, etc. It seems like it needs a full gut, which will invoke the need to comply with current electrical/plumbing code, which is obviously extremely expensive to update.

Any thoughts on how to proceed with properties like this? It’s hard to estimate rehab costs because I have a feeling as soon as the walls start coming down, there could be some serious (financial) demons trapped in there.