Before buying call the city to ask what that street allows for, do not ask about the specific house or you can open a can of warms.Hire also a Fire consultant that knows the bylaws in the area.If you really want to buy an illegal unit and legalize it later, then also hire an experienced architect/engineer that is used to legalize rentals.The most "friendly" area for illegal units is Downtown Toronto, there is an extreme need for apartments , if they would shut down all illegal units, there would be thousands of tenants on the street.If you still think about buying an illegal unit and keep it as is, make sure you comply with Fire cod - that is non negotiable - and have an exit strategy in case you are sooner or later shutdown by the city.If you get shutdown and cannot or want to legalize it, you will have to change doors or exits, remove kitchens, etc... etc....

If you can't afford to have an attorney write a contract from the ground up, an option is to buy a pre-made contract from the American Institute of Architects: http://www.aia.org/contractdocs/index.htmI had to do a couple 200k+ projects on these AIA contracts back when I did remodeling with my dad - in every case we used these, it was on recommendation from an attorney and I never ran across an attorney that saw any need to modify an AIA contract.

The last 4 years I have been involved in architecting an end to end lending platform for a private mortgage lender.

Do you need an architect or drawings?

Hi Heather,We've done a few rehabs, and I've worked construction and for/with Architects for the last 30 years.

Might look for a local civil engineer or architect that specializes in residential framing.

You will need to have drawings done for your plans in order to get permits if you are moving walls and opening the roof.You are going to need an architect.

They would also be to scale and provide a basis from which you could have the draughtsman, an architect, or an engineer update them to show the structural renovations you wish to perform.

Hire a self certified licensed architect to review the deck.  

Greetings.  I've actually been bingeing on the podcast for the last 1.5 months (on episode 50) and reading as many books as I can, but new to the forum.  I live in Oakland and currently own 2 rental units and plan on ...