We've had it happen before, nothing major, but just some extra money we weren't originally planning on spending to turn a unit. 

Stop hanging out with your deadbeat buddies who spend all day drinking, talking sports, and otherwise wasting away.

You'll spend a lot of time (sounds like you may have already) spinning your wheels in trying to find the right lender, whereas a solid broker can pair you up with the right fit right away and get your project moving. 

Look at the comps in your market, having extra storage is a bonus so as long as it has working electrical I wouldn't spend much time or money on it other than making sure it's clean for showings.

The last thing you want to do is spend the money for a conversion and then get shut down by the neighbors or city.Is there another way to access these bedrooms other than the garage?

If I fail to spend all my money before I die, she will inherit the high credit, corporate backed NNN properties I developed/repurposed over the last 15 years.

@Sandee SampsonA construction attorney would be who to contact but you are going to spend a lot more than $7000 in getting this resolved against a builder.Also let’s say you win, the courts could also say you didn’t pay for a retaining wall which is needed so it’s a betterment to the property so you would still need to pay for the wall and they would be responsible for some soil etc.

Maybe you can help the investors you meet with all the miscellaneous tasks involved with investing like picking up rent checks, turning over properties for new tenants, or even just driving by occasionally to make sure their properties are in good condition.I'd also recommend spending a lot of time looking at all the homes you're targeting in your area, both online and in person.

I see this is posted in the house-hack forum so I'll make the assumption that you want to owner-occupy your next investment.To work more hands-on, you'll want to spend time searching for deals, analyzing deals, and networking/building a team.Before your property search, I'd recommend speaking with a lender to find out how much you'll qualify for.

I usually spend my time, if the seller is present, keeping him/her out of the way if needed, pumping tenants for info, taking measurements for room sizes and drawing floor plans with doors and windows and noting appliances and taking pictures.We look for value add properties that are in decent structural and mechanical condition (except for one deal that we got really cheap).