These numbers are hard costs and do not include site engineering or architectural costs.

You will need to learn all of these components of a development deal: land acquisition, site selection and sourcing, zoning and entitlements, architectural design management, deal underwriting, financing, construction, leasing, property management, and sale or asset management.I would suggest working for companies that already develop the types of projects that you are ambitious to build in the future.

While in escrow, to gauge interest our son (and one of our partners) drew an architectural rendering, and floor plans.

House is a 1995 SFH and interior has generic condo feel...not a lot of architectural elements, except pitched open ceiling in living room.

I would talk to the architecture firm that you will use for the blueprints.

Find the nearest school of Architecture (Cal Poly comes to mind as my son in law graduated from there) and see if you can have some students address your project for a Senior project.

For doing something like this would I need an actual engineer/architecture?

Architectural Building Inspection Inc.6850 35th Avenue NE, Suite #5Seattle, WA 98115

What people really mean is "below intrinsic value".The market value of a house, the amount of money people are willing to pay, is function of many things:The intrinsic valuehow well it is stagedthe cosmetic conditionHow well it is marketedHow easy is the seller/realtor to deal withHow long are they willing to keep it on the marketcountless other factorsImagine two architecturally similar houses for sale on the same block. 

I am a commercial interior designer for a global architecture firm and serve on the Young Leaders board for CoreNet, NJ.Strange as it may be, I've wanted to be a landlord since adolescence— so be it.