All Forum Posts by: Michael Hacker

You could reach out to @Travis Shelton.  He organizes a meetup. 

@Travis Shelton also has a regular meetup in the desert ridge area.

@David Segal Are you hearing that the tax is added to permit fees and charged by the city?  I haven't seen it in Phoenix.

As Greg mentioned the zoning stipulates the number of units / acre, but I believe it is more than 3 in Phoenix.   I see that you are a realtor so if you check Monsoon, it will tell you the 'city zone'.  We're actually building on an R-3 lot right now, 9,250 sf, and we were capped at 3 so it was more like 12 units / acre.  I'm thinking that you are maxed out already and may have some units that were added without permits.  Sometimes it's easiest to just go downtown to the building department and ask for residential site planning.  They can tell you exactly what you can do.  Many times the ability to build more units is restricted more by parking requirements than zoning.  You can also check historical permits on the 3rd floor.  Good luck - 

Not sure if this answers your question but depending on what they owe, you might buy it and have them carry the paper.  

@Travis Shelton is now holding a regular meetup in north Phoenix.

@Charles Thurber We've done addition / remodel projects in Coronado and Pierson and I would agree completely with everything @Jake Saliba is saying.  Feel free to connect and send me a PM if you have any other questions in dealing with Historical Preservation.

@Sunil Kumar The mini-splits tend to have a much higher SEER rating (more energy efficient) than traditional units so they should be less expensive to operate.  Keep in mind, they will heat the home via heat pump which does not work will below 30 degrees.

@Joel Florek Thank you!  I'll check it out, looks like a great option.

I would second sketchup for floor plans.  We also use excel for all budgeting, accounting and job costing.  Excel tends to be considered less sophisticated than other software platforms but it can actually be extremely powerful and you can customize and program it to fit your exact needs.  We actually use google sheets, which also has very simple sharing features so multiple people can contribute and you can control who can enter and change specific data ranges.