Recently, I have made the decision to wholeheartedly commit myself to this journey.My current plan is to invest in a multifamily home for house hacking in my local area or perhaps a single-family property with an unattached garage or basement that I can convert into an Additional Dwelling Unit .

I would have paid another experienced local investor (an unbiased party not having anything to do with the sale of the home or selling me services) to do a thorough video tour of every inch of the house before submitting an offer. 

I'm looking to convert my IRA (just rolled over my employer 401k) into a self directed IRA so that I can invest in real estate through that vehicle. 

What the fools didn't realize that the greedy managers of those Senior Living Residences would prevent millions of seniors who are financially unable and unprepared to afford the small condo-sized unit residences + vehemently UNWILLING to move into such residences instead preferring to remain in their beloved homes where they lovingly raised & cared for their spouse & children and where they know every single INCH of their current home!

The house is a five bedroom could be converted into a six bedroom three bathroom house about 20 minutes from downtown near schools in a secondary suburb.

I've even seen distressed multi-families in some of the better neighborhoods sell to investors who convert them back to single families. 

Would reaching out to a real estate lawyer or architect be better to see if it's possible to convert to a legal apt?

I had 1 contractor come by today and quoted me a French drain system, as well as raising the basement floor up 6 inches, with 3 sump pump's for a price tag of $16K, not including the repairs to the walls. 

The most recent price I just got to convert an existing space into a studio apartment was for $150,000 to only be able to get about $900/month rent.

If you're marketing to mom and pop PMs but they only have 5% of the total market share then even if you converted every one to your company, you've only grown by that 5%.