Opinions on Coach Houses?

[Nicholas Bailey]

In Chicago it's common for multi-family buildings to have a coach house behind the main building, which 120 years ago was legitimately for storing your horses and carriage, but now has been converted to an additional unit (sometimes very nice).

I worry that this basically brings me twice the expenses/maintenance.  Two roofs, two heating/cooling systems, etc, with only one additional unit's rent to cover the expense.  I'm curious if anyone here has experience owning/managing a property with a coach house, and what it did for your expenses.

[Mark Ainley]

@Nicholas Bailey They are an added unit for income and they typically are only 25x20 so the roof and maintenance isn't too bad. It is like having a SFH next door with lower taxes. Downfalls are being sure the city recognizes it as a legal unit. A downfall is it typically eliminates the ability to have parking forcing tenants in your front building to do street parking.

@Cornelius Dykes Have your attorney pull the zoning certificate sooner then later and that will tell you if it is a legal unit or not.  The city inspectors don't seem to like them and they always push harder when we have an issue on one.