All Forum Posts by: Tucker McCarthy

Oh I see, sorry about that I misunderstood! No definitely not, you'll need a building permit but not any zoning approval as long as you aren't changing the total number of units. My apologies for the mix up!

@Stephen Gallagher thank you for this post! This is extremely helpful. I was replacing some outlets in a kitchen of a unit I'm rehabbing and had an electrician there at the same time putting in some hard wired smoke detectors. He noticed that I was going to put in GFCI outlets on every outlet in my kitchen, even though they were on the same circuit. He mentioned this is a common mistake of homeowners and makes it obvious the homeowner did the work rather than an electrician, as the only outlet required to be GFCI is that last outlet in the circuit before the breaker (this is not correct if within 6 feet of a water source, it has to be a GFCI). 

Is this true for all outlets? Is it ok to replace the last outlet in a circuit before the breaker with a GFCI outlet and then the remainder going out from that as regular 3 prong outlets? 

Thanks in advance!

Tucker

Hi @Richard Lovering I know this is a bit unrelated to your question/post, but have you checked zoning to see if you are allowed to add an additional unit? Just want to make sure you aren't factoring that into your proforma for the property if you haven't researched it yet. Manchester is very forgiving with Variance applications if the zone you are in doesn't allow an additional unit, but it is never a guarantee. Just food for thought!

@Robert Leonard sorry to hear that! Probably meant to me, on to find another one! What areas are you looking in?

Hey @Steve Y. is this property in New Ipswich, NH? I'm from Milford which is close by. I don't specifically have a contractor, but there are a laundry list of them in Milford, NH which is close by. Might try a google search and see what comes up. I'm not sure scope of work, but $15K for labor doesn't sound horrible.

Hey @Robert Leonard have you checked zoning to see if adding a 5th unit will be allowed? Happy to take a quick look for you if you'd like, just need the Town/City you're in and street address, or address close by. Even if you have ample space it doesn't mean you'll be able to do it. I just bought a property that is only two units but 6,000 square feet (attic, basement, 2-story barn). It can be very difficult in NH to add units, I'm having a hard time with mine. I went to the Zoning Board to ask for an additional two units and got shot down, getting ready to go back to ask for just 1 extra unit. If it's not allowed by "right" in the zoning, you have to ask for a variance and have to be able to prove a hardship, which can be extremely difficult.

Hey @Joseph Bowers I am located and invest in Milford currently. Let me know if I can be of any help!

I regretfully ended up going with an FHA loan rather than a HomePath or conventional low money down loan with PMI. I think the only advantage in using FHA is that you can potentially get a slightly lower interest rate and can more easily qualify with lower credit scores. I would highly suggest going for conventional if you can, the lending criteria is less stringent and you can remove the PMI when you hit 20% equity.

Hi Samantha, 

NH can be VERY tough when it comes to zoning laws. I actually just went to the zoning board for a property I recently purchased in Southern NH to add additional dwelling units to existing building square footage and was denied. You have to prove a hardship against that municipalities zoning ordinance unless it's an allowed use. In my case, I was asking for an increase in the allowable density and don't have the required property acreage.

When you are looking at properties, google that town name and GIS, for example, "Nashua NH GIS". Turn on the zoning map and figure out what zone the property is in. Then google "Nashua NH zoning ordinance" and find that zone and see if two family is an allowed use. 

I believe they did recently pass legislature in NH for accessory dwelling units or "in-law apartments" that you are allowed by right to do so no matter what local by-laws say, but you still have to go through the town/City and I believe it only applies to owner occupied situations.

Hope that's helpful! I'm a civil engineer and deal with zoning/planning by-laws every day so I'm pretty familiar with how the processes and rules work.

@Dieggo Goncalves no I won't unfortunately, I've actually never been to that meet-up I'll try to make the next one