All Forum Posts by: Brent Watanabe

Another fellow architect! Welcome Will!

Like you, I'm a newbie and have found this site incredibly helpful. This is definitely the place to be, to immerse yourself in real estate.

Good luck!

Brent

I think to start you need to check your local zoning ordinance and make sure the property you want to convert isn't restricted in the code. There's usually a chart that breaks down the different types of district designations and the permitted uses associated with them, or at minimum a lengthy description.

If there isn't a distinction between residential districts, you can probably just call the city to find out.

If there is a distinction and your property isn't zoned for multi-family, you'll need to get the property re-zoned. Probably another call to the city.

There can be a lot of complexities based on where you're trying to do it.

Not sure about LA, but in Chicago you used to need to be a "Registered Energy Professional". That's been discontinued and now you just have to sign a form and ensure that the IECC criteria are met. Perhaps the architect didn't do it because SoCal has a registration requirement for that part? 

This is a fantastic conversation and one I wish I would have stumbled on or started myself about 8 months ago.  

Going from a commercial practice to trying to set out and engage on smaller scale work has been an interesting journey. I wanted to get my feet wet in real estate and leverage my current career, so I decided to try out what i thought was a small, "easy" permit project. 

@Jared W Smith , @Nik Moushon , @Nicholas Leone I would be interested to know if you have any experience with un-permitted "duplex down" situations and how you handled them. If you're willing to share of course.

Regarding the actual topic of this thread, I think situations like the one I'm in (un-permitted work/knowing the building code), along with the one that @Jared W Smith brought up regarding zoning, show incredible value for an architect. If nothing else, you need an architect for most permitting exercises anyway.

Glad to see there are some seasoned architects here. I'm looking forward to absorbing all I can from the folks on this thread.

Cheers,

Brent

@Andrew Harrell...was Valpo a target market for you because of the college and ability to rent to students? Or were there other factors involved in that change of venue?

This is quite impressive. You did this in St. Charles?