All Forum Posts by: Jonas LaPointe

Welcome Paul and Michael!

James, Justin, and Steve, thanks for the welcomes! I'll check out the Black Diamond group too.

James, the in-law apartment is totally self contained including its own laundry. It's mostly like a studio apartment with a separate kitchen and bathroom at around 800sqft total.

The end result is nice but it was definitely a classic "can of worms" Reno project. I ended up needing to completely remove and replace all 3 exterior walls and do some foundation repair.

The utilities all tie into the main house and the rent is adjusted accordingly. Our town bylaws allow for these "accessory apartments" but only to have someone living there if the main house is owner occupied. 

We would rent it out to non-family if needed though but since we live in the main part and have young kids we would have to be picky about who we rented to.

Thanks Ann, I'll check it out.

Thanks for the welcomes Jose and Joel!

Hello everyone! I'm new to Bigger Pockets and my wife and I are looking into our "first" investment property. I love the idea of these forums. Thanks for setting them up and sharing! I'm a big fan on the podcasts and have read a few books so far. I'm also a former (small-time) general contractor and our family is in our second primary residence together. We recently finished putting in an accessory apartment (in-law apartment) which my sister has moved into. We're in the Northampton MA area and looking for a 2-3 family BRRR property where we can take advantage of forced appreciation as we have with our primary residence. Good luck to you all in your own projects!

Took not too

I totally agree with Manolo. We had to hold back money in escrow on our primary residence for a heating system replacement in Massachusetts. It was no problem at all with the closing and we were protected by the funds being held in escrow. In retrospect, I wish we had a timeline clause in there as the contractor too forever to get done but it all worked out in the end.