The property needed a lot of work but was probably 100+ years old and had  some wonderful ornate architectural features. 

The idea of having my hands on a beautiful piece of architecture that is also providing me with income, and investment opportunity excites me!

Also check the assessor's record to see if the square footage matches the current or single story.Getting it permitted now would take architectural drawings but also check with the abandoned permit they might be able to get the old drawings off the computer or microfilm.

I have managed projects as large as $11M with up to 45 contractors under me at a time.My long term plan is to replace my W-2 income plus 50% by age 40 (32 now) and then retire and go back to school for architecture to work for myself in real estate.

Home and garden architectural series. 

There have got to be a lot of factors that play into this, but the biggest two for me have been convenience (want to be close to downtown, restaurants, bars, etc.) and architecture (it's impossible to find beautiful turn of the century homes in the burbs that were built between 60's and 00's).Given 1 and 2, I would expect to see a sort of suburban revival in 20(ish) years.  

The idea of having my hands on a beautiful piece of architecture that is also providing me with income, and investment opportunity excites me!

I have a great RE agent and we both are in the architectural/construction field.

To do that would require architectural, structural, LID, etc. plus plan check fees and department clearance fees and RTI permit fees. 

The properties themselves are impeccable pieces of architecture and design.