We are having our roof replaced due to storm damage, however, when the shingles were removed another storm came through the area and caused a significant amount of water damage inside the house.

When we stopped finding good deals about 5 or 6 years ago, we just started throwing every penny into paying down the principal across our fleet (paying off higher interest rates first, obviously).Looking back, we probably should have invested that money in the stock market because our interest payments were about 4 or 5%, and we could have doubled that with fairly safe stocks, but that's water under the bridge I guess. 

I added a decent amount into the house (new paint, new hot water heater, brand new kitchen, better layout) but I’m not sure if that’s enough for me to appraise for 20% equity. 

We want to know exactly what interest rate we’ll pay on a mortgage, what the water bill will be, if the property next door is thinking of selling, and everything else that has even marginal relevance.  

The water bill can be transferred to the tenant's name.

I love the idea of renovating your carriage house - does it have any water and electric hookups already?

There are many buildings with systems reaching the end of their life - Galvanized hot water risers, leaking vent stacks, aging window systems, outdated elevator and fire safety equipment.

New roof, new water heater, new Electrical panel, New HVAC, new Concrete driveway, new Concrete steps & walkout basement, Open space of kitchen and living room, fully finished basement with wet bar and new full bathroom, new windows.

When turning basements into ADUs, and the breaker box, furnace, and water heater are down there, what are best practices for handling them?

Sometimes if you are renting the unit and it is not insulated properly, then you hear footsteps and conversations from next-door units, so tenants complain a lot, but there is not much you can do.Also, one time the unit above mine leaked water into my unit, and the HOA said I needed to talk to people living above mine to fix the issue and they didn't have the fund to fix the bathtub from leaking into mine, so I had to pay for the repairs.Sometimes working with HOA and is painful, but other times is easy if the unit does not have problems