It required a full gut remodel, layout changes, and probably a second story addition.

Work with the local experts- talk with local zoning officials, engage architects, and reach out to contractors to understand the cost and feasibility of your project.Run your numbers- do some forecasting and layout some financial models to project costs, revenues, and returns.Make sure you are utilizing your team- aforementioned real estate broker, financial advisor/ CPA, and lawyer and others as you go.Best wishes and good luck.

Agreed with @Theresa HarrisGet a contractor recommendation (or multiple) from your friend and reach out to GCs yourself to have a couple of quotes and ideas for the renovation project.During the walkthroughs, you can pick the contractor's brain regarding pricing on different material grades, efficient layout ideas, etc.

If property has good layout I have seen many cash cows pop up there.

THat 2/1 is 700k-ish, just now I see 4/2 900k-ish but has basement and unique layout, rent from several rooms can be $3k-$4k here, if mortgage is $4.5 then you actual mortgage is only $0.5-$1.5.

Without knowing more details about the specifics of the project being proposed as it relates to your property, it's hard to say if there are any obvious big red flags that could negatively impact your property's future value.That being said, I would try to find out as much information as possible about the new apartment building's design and layout - the two big things I would try to ascertain would be the location of the garage entrances/exits, as well as the location of any outdoor amenity spaces (pools, terraces, dog runs, etc).  

But when I was an agent, learning some basic Python and VBA (Excel) really helped me save time in the process of collecting and analyzing real estate data.I've been working with technology for the last 25 years; sometimes you don't need sexy, you just need a tool that works.It's a sin that, we technologist, fall for often: searching for sexy instead of "this old thing just works" :) Agreed, though in my experience, a lot of real estate professionals are far from the most technical people, so having clean and intuitive software UI is very key... but then again the MLS exists and that to my knowledge still doesn't have a back button... lol

My main goal is to identify an opportunity that can be scaled from a couple of spots to a dozen, to several dozen eventually without the need to completely re-design or re-engineer the layout without respect to providing utilities. 

I will keep you updated as I go further into this project.Gratefully,Jay O. the units you are talking about are way too big, the layouts way too big, etc.

The software is really intuitive and easy to use.