I've worked in architecture and have done bird-dogging for several investors over the years, but haven't had the time to seriously focus on investing... until now!

See Uniform Capitalization Rules earlier.The costs you can choose to deduct or to capitalize include the following.Carrying charges, such as interest and taxes, that you pay to own property, except carrying charges that must be capitalized under the uniform capitalization rules;Research and experimentation costs;Intangible drilling and development costs for oil, gas, and geothermal wells;Exploration costs for new mineral deposits;Mining development costs for a new mineral deposit;Costs of establishing, maintaining, or increasing the circulation of a newspaper or other periodical; andCosts of removing architectural and transportation barriers to people with disabilities and the elderly.

That is another factor.You might just want to sell it for a spread as it sits to one of these architecture company owners, someone wanting to do a bed & breakfast, or one of these historian types that makes it a labor of love and not about the money.

My wife and I are both in architecture and have always wanted to get into investing, so it's about time to make it happen!  

Then even if you can do a condo conversion you must make sure of all of your soft cost such as architectural design, civil and structural engineering, permit cost and know something about how the property would be appraised for property tax.

Luckily, so far everyone I've talked with at City of Portland has been gracious with me being an amateur asking questions and instead of a conventional route for the site plan / architectural drawings I'm at least starting out with outsourcing it to an architect in Pakistan (and then adapting the lumia drawings myself).

There will also be additional costs unrelated to construction of the buildings: landscaping, architecture, permit soft costs, land prep. 

Is there a place I can turn to for architectural advice?

Question: I'm deciding between going back to school for either architectural technology or structural engineering as a background to help me in my flips.

Porch before and I believe he should be able to handle everything for you in terms of getting your violations resolved; as you typically will not need Architectural drawings unless you are changing the size/shape of the porch.