All Forum Posts by: David Edwards

@Derek Morrison I second what @Jeff Marzo was saying. You, or someone working with you, (like an architect) need to talk to the building department to confirm you can build a home on the land you are looking at. Once you have that sorted out then its time to look into any physical barriers to construction as mentioned by @Connor Dunham to sort out how simple or difficult (read expensive) it will be to build and live in that location. Suitability of the site for septic is another key concern of home sites if you don't have access to sewer. 

One thing to consider is trying to build the future home as self sufficient as possible looking into passive house or some similar build quality to minimize how much reliance you would have on the grid in general. 

Nate, 

As someone potentially in your target market I'm looking for rental history, quality of build / condition of the place, and a decent cap / cashflow. The reason we're investing back east is because the numbers make sense in regards to cashflow. Appreciation is a maybe in that market (in my opinion) aside from inflation. 

Hope that helps,

Jeff, With this project (and with almost all others) the answer is going to be it depends. 

It depends on the extent and scope of the work, the jurisdiction's requirements, and what you are trying to do with the place. 

At a risk of oversimplifying the process, most jurisdictions are checking for 3 things, structural integrity of the building, fire / life safety of the proposed space, and conformance to zoning requirements of the site. 

The first thing I would do in your situation would be to confirm what the city wants / needs to see. There is no reason to jump through hoops getting documents together if the city doesn't need you to have them. If you are already going to be doing major work on the house and there is a need to bring the place down to the studs you could ask to have have whats there inspected at that time and rolled into the proposed permitted work.

I've said this on other posts here but you should go to the city and start establishing a good relationship with them ASAP. The stance to take is someone inheriting a less than ideal situation that's trying to do things right. Let them tell you whats needed and work with them through the process, establishing that you respect their authority on the matter and are trying to work with them can go a long way in making your life easier.

For reference, a simplified lift of drawings required for a typical house permit in my area are:
- a site plan, 
- floor plans for every level calling out life safety elements, dimensions, etc
- building and wall sections describing the construction of all the building components as well as their r values
- building elevations 
- Architectural details 
- Structural drawings and details
- Structural Calculations  

Hope that helps, feel free to reach out with any other specific questions you might have.

I'd check and see what the local jurisdiction requires, those windows sound too small for egress and depending on the placement of the windows you might be in a new window well situation to provide what would be the minimum acceptable egress. 

That said, if the building was previously permitted and the jurisdiction was ok with it you might "technically" not have to change anything but a lot of jurisdictions will do rental housing inspections to ensure that these sorts of things aren't being overlooked. 

My opinion as an architect, regardless of the jurisdictions requirements, would be that you should have all sleeping areas in the basement unit equipped with some form of egress for basic life safety. Not worth saving a few grand if someone dies in your house during a fire one night. 

The hassle that you will have permitting the previously completed work will largely depend on the jurisdiction you are operating in. My advice on this sort of thing would be to stop into the local building department, explain the situation and come to them as someone "trying to do the right thing in a non ideal situation". 

My experience has been that if you approach in this way things go a heck of a lot smoother. I'd also ask if there's an option to have the permitting be subject to a field inspection to remove or reduce the requirement for a full set of drawings. 

Good Luck

@Michael Wayne Another option for the feasibility study would be to go through a local architect. Any architect worth their salt will have a grasp on the local zoning code and can give you some general idea of what they are seeing for cost/sf until you can get a contractor involved to dial things in. These studies are often done for a flat fee or as an initial phase of their overall services. 

I agree that reaching out to a management company would be a good step as well to determine if your understanding of the market is in line with what they are seeing, this can also give you an idea of whats expected as far as unit mix and amenities are concerned.

Another item that I didn't see mentioned above was impact fees, check with (or have your architect check with) the city to determine what additional fees are imposed on projects increasing density.

Good luck!

Contractors, other developers, and architects are good places to start for finding those parts of your team. You could reach out to the local ULI (urban land institute) group and see if someone there has a recommendation or you could put out a call here on BP. If you are near me its also a service my company offers. Feel free to shoot me a DM if you want to discuss further.

Head down to the local building department for permit records. If they have drawings the architects name should be on them.

@Account Closed Which market are you looking to build in? Is there a reason there aren't any products of that type there market wise? Do you have a competitive advantage that make this a viable project where it was not for anyone else? Or has this town somehow been overlooked and you are potentially first to develop it? 

@Account Closed

I responded to another somewhat similar post the other day LINK HERE 

I second @Jonathan Orr's point on bringing someone on who has gone through the process before. 

If you don't go that route (or even if you do) it makes sense to bring on an owners rep to help guide you through the process, and to start looking for an Architect. They should be able to get you pointed in the right direction and to confirm that you are able to get what you need on the site to make it pencil. 

Good Luck!