All Forum Posts by: Aaron Schump

@Seth Murray

On our first project, a remodeled duplex we are living in,  I used the drawings as a part of my capital investment. Being a rehab, it wasn't a huge component. You could easily use the drawings as a team member as well. The most cash for your talents would come from a ground-up project. That's where we are heading next. 

@Seth Murray

Welcome to Architecture's Dark side. And by the dark side, I mean way better! Your license and experience are much more than complementary, they can be the driver of the real estate venture. Your drawings have real value and can be leveraged as capital investment.  If you haven't, look into James Petty's Book, Architect & Developer: A Guide to Self-Initiating Projects. It is a great primer.

@Christopher Johnson

Hi Chris. We do lots of these kinds of additions in Denver. As @Roger Kelley mentioned, there are many constraints, but the trickiest is the bulk plane. The base plane is derived from the spot elevations at the front setback. It's not a straight forward calculation... The first thing we work on as architects are the constraints of the site. Feel free to message me for more info. 

I vote to build. The advantages of your experience in practice can and should be leveraged. Most banks will take your architectural fee as credit. Think 20% down reduced to 10% less your fee. And/ or you could use the structure as your primary for 2 years after construction before you sell to negate the capital gains. Too many other ideas get into here... but there are many architects moving in the same direction. (I certainly am) A good place to start is James Petty's book, Architect & Developer: A guide to Self-Initiating Projects.  https://www.amazon.com/Archite...

@Brian Phillips Happy to help! Keep in mind that pay is different from the billing rate. For instance, if your brother is being paid 55/hr his billable rate is double if not triple. All the overhead is baked into the billable rate. So 100-150 is probably about right for billable rate. That being said there will be some differences in the price among professionals, but not half the price of their competitors. 

Hi @Brian Phillips. That hourly rate seems low. If engineers in Ohio are truly averaging 38/hour, I worry about the entire profession. The scope of work you describe is robust and will take many hours to complete. Lastly I not sure what you mean by non-retail. All professionals will have a number that going below won't pencil out. I doubt anyone would discount their fee 50% to 150%.  But if they did, I suspect you would be getting exactly what you paid for. The better the drawings/design professional the easier the bidding, construction, and interactions with the building department will be. Skimp on finishes, not on professionals. 

Best, 

Aaron

@Nyelle Johnson

Hi Nyelle. I second @Nadia Jarrett's recommendation to reach out to an architect familiar with the local zoning. That being said, typically you can do fewer dwelling units than what the zoning sets as a maximum. So if your building is in a three or multi-family residential zone, you should be able to move to a duplex without much issue.  Trying to go the other direction is quite a headache. 

As for value, you'll really need to dig into the numbers comparing the two layouts and how they relate to rents. But if the third unit would be almost unlivalbe I would imagine the rental income /cash flow would be less than ideal.

@Cameron Hillebrand 

I would think of electrical as well. Many of the homes in St. Louis City, if they haven't been renovated in the last 20/30 years is likely still knob and tube wiring. Which is already an issue. With the fir damage, I would be ready to replace all of it. 

Not to dissuade you from this deal, but at 11k, I would imagine there are many other issues. This is not exactly a turn-key operation. Investigate the other big-ticket items, roof, brick load-bearing walls, foundation. 

@Cameron Hillebrand 

The exposed brick is not an issue, though you will want to seal them after they have been repointed. If you dont the brick will flake off over time. It's a real mess. We like to use a water-based product, not a polyethylene.The water-based options will allow the brick to "breathe/dry out". 

St. Louis still has great masons, since most of the city buildings are true brick constructions, so no problem with labor. The insulation value is sort of an issue, but it's not really any worse than the plaster you already have in place. The huge thermal mass of the brick is what slows down the heat/cold transfer. If you want better insulation, you will want to remove the plater and fur out with 2x4's to allow for insulation. Rockwool works great in a brick application. 

@Steven Schulman though I am not familiar with the local zoning regulations, parking runs the show. If you can’t park the cars as required by the zoning code it’s going to be a hard sell for the zoning board of appeals.