College can teach you accounting, finance, contract law, architecture, engineering, etc.... 

That's a potential income property, more $/Sq ft, their neighbors home will increase in value and may help theirs, perhaps if they build higher they can have the panorama again?

Renovations still in progress.The house is rural and little strange in architecture.

an architect or anyone with a background in architectural design or drafting would be able to help.  

It is in the "path of progress" and has great architecture with a bit of a hipster vibe with restaurants,  coffee shops, breweries, art studios, etc opening up.  

For those of you doing new construction, do you use an architect or a drafts person for your your designs? When you start the design, do you know the style you want or does the architect make those decisions? What do ...

I love to go to the old architectural salvage places in New Orleans. 

It will take months for the buyer to complete due diligence, put together financing, engineering/impact studies, surveys, architectural… In my opinion, you need to show them that the building is empty and that you are in a position to complete your end of things.

I strongly suggest speaking to the ZBA / PB and explain what you are trying to do and get a checklist of what they require along with all the escrow and Township fees (will be a few thousand) and compare it against the two architectural quotes that you have received.

A little bit about me:- I graduated with an architecture degree from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, and worked as an architect in Asia for 5 years.- I then transferred to real estate, working in business development for Jones Lang LaSalle for 11 years. - I have been working in the online marketing space for a little over 3 years, and have just recently decided to focus my efforts on video marketing for people involved in my 2 favourite subjects - building and real estate.I am really excited to be part of the Bigger Pockets community, to learn what is and is not working in terms of real estate marketing based on real efforts on the ground, and to add to the discussion from my knowledge whenever I can!