2)how much should engineer,architect fees should cost according to the project overall cost?

I am an architect and I have one property - I want to build a rental property portfolio creating a sustainable  (green) market place to help lower energy costs.

Further, properties in VA do not trade on a price per sq foot basisI like the Charleston SC  MLS  in bold letters at the bottom of the listings it says.. " IF SIZE MATTERS MEASURE" We just sold a new build that my architect put 2010 sq ft which my wife relied on.. since it had not been assessed yet it just shows vacant lot on tax records.. appraiser came in at 1825  sq ft.. same thing they wanted to know what we would do about it..

If you don't want to spend the extra cash to add a half bath downstairs you can draft the blueprints (suggested only, unless your a legit architect) and show them the houses un-tapped potential.

I worked for a landscape architect as a laborer installing lawns, landscapes, walkways, etc, and I really do enjoy physical labor and seeing projects through to completion.Anyways, this is my first post, so it is also sort of an introduction.

Before buying call the city to ask what that street allows for, do not ask about the specific house or you can open a can of warms.Hire also a Fire consultant that knows the bylaws in the area.If you really want to buy an illegal unit and legalize it later, then also hire an experienced architect/engineer that is used to legalize rentals.The most "friendly" area for illegal units is Downtown Toronto, there is an extreme need for apartments , if they would shut down all illegal units, there would be thousands of tenants on the street.If you still think about buying an illegal unit and keep it as is, make sure you comply with Fire cod - that is non negotiable - and have an exit strategy in case you are sooner or later shutdown by the city.If you get shutdown and cannot or want to legalize it, you will have to change doors or exits, remove kitchens, etc... etc....

@Greg Palmer @Keith Bloemendaal When building your SF houses do you use a cookie cutter approach and build the same style house for each build to keep costs down and to keep construction more streamlined or do you have an architect draw up a different set of plans for each property that you build.

In Rome, they would make the architect stand under the arch he built so that if it was faulty, it would kill him. 

At this point I have an architect/expeditor working with the county on filing the plans.I plan on using the place eventually as my main residence however if renting it out as a STR makes sense I am not opposed.

If you can't afford to have an attorney write a contract from the ground up, an option is to buy a pre-made contract from the American Institute of Architects: http://www.aia.org/contractdocs/index.htmI had to do a couple 200k+ projects on these AIA contracts back when I did remodeling with my dad - in every case we used these, it was on recommendation from an attorney and I never ran across an attorney that saw any need to modify an AIA contract.