All Forum Posts by: Autumn Kirila

Welcome Autumn! There are a lot of local RE meetups here in Pittsburgh like ACRE, SWIG, WIRED, Gather, REI on Tap, and Broke to FI. They all have their own Facebook groups and I think that's the best way to stay in touch and see when the next meet ups are. I noticed a lot of meet ups don't get posted on BiggerPockets.

I am part of Gather which is an all female monthly RE meet up. Message me if you want more info on these events! I go to most of them.

@Autumn Kirila From our experience if you start messing with the electrical panel get ready to spend $$$$. Some investors choose or get forced based on code to upgrade the excessing panel to 200amps. Many times this requires a rewire for both units. Opening walls gets expensive. Adding an additional panel for the second unit can cost between $5-10k. That doesn't include rewiring, adding GFCIs, or other repairs. Electrical is quite expensive and rightfully so. It's dangerous and labor intensive depending on the scope of work. There are work arounds to save money but it's always property specific solutions. If you have basement access that's plus. Contact some licensed electricians and get multiple quotes. See what they recommend. That's the only solution when adding meters, panels, or making electrical repairs. 

Best of luck. 

Hi Autumn! 

Former electrical foreman of 13 years here. 

Unfortunately, it isn't just a case of simply adding an electrical meter for the first floor unit. If you want to do this properly, and a licensed electrical contractor will no doubt expect this to be done to code and permitted, you're looking at a minimum of having to do the following work:

- Split the common area electrical and first floor unit electrical. They need to be on separate electrical panels with separate meters. So you would have a total of 3 electrical panels and meters. One for each unit and one for the common area. 

- If the common area electrical and first floor unit electrical are on the same panel, there is a good chance that there are circuits being shared between the two areas. You may also have borrowed neutrals across the two areas etc and this will require some rewiring to split accordingly. 

- The electrical panels may need to be relocated to comply with the latest local code - I'm not licensed in Pennsylvania so I am not familiar with it. 

- You may need to update circuit protection with AFCIs and GFCIs. 

- As Jaron mentioned above, you may also need a 200amp supply upgrade. 

Too many variables to hazard a guess on cost but I would definitely reach out to more than one electrical contractor to get some quotes. 

Hope this helped and all the best! 

 I sure do! Same time, same place. Feel free to reach out for more info.