References/Recommendations from our architect and hard money lender contacts4.

Hi Corey,  I have not had to have a property rezoned, but for full construction drawings from an architect it has typically taken me several months for a single family residential, full gut remodel with addition. 

According to a post or two on BP, apparently other States seem (I can't confirm if the practice is correct/legal) to let their unlicensed assistants take the initial information and chat with clients about properties.Most real estate investing is really a "self employed" kinda of endevour unless you are thinking of working for some sort of investment firm, developer firm, architect/engineering real estate firm (whose day to day focus really probably wouldn't be on real estate).I hope this helps some. 

Also, you could bring an architect and GC to take a look BUT this would depend on the max # of ADU units allowed on site by the city.

I wanted to chat with with someone who has experience in shipping container conversions in homes (single and duplex to 4-plex) or building offices out of them (building them and setting them up with connections to cit...

You answered all my questions and concerns :) Since I already have an architect to get permits for ADU, he will also do the same for deck extension.

I also want to hire an architect to design it with full building materials, auto cad blueprints, etc in which I own the right’s in order to build copies of the design when I want to scale using the same construction company in order to build familiarity with the build and reduce long term construction costs.

And yes, need a good, reliable, experienced contractor (and possibly architect) - which the loan officer can likely recommend if they specialize, and then that contractor will likely already be approved with the lender.Only concern I see for you above is you mention this is your 2nd 4-unit you're looking to buy. 

I just spoke with an architect and found out the construction costs are going to be around $250 per sqft.

When speaking to an architect today, he told me to factor in spending $250 a sqft for a new duplex in West Palm Beach, Florida.