You may have trouble depending on where your property is in Topsail, however, since everything is about to fall into the ocean and you can't rebuild in certain areas.

Clinton destroyed the auto rebuild market which went from being a billion dollar industry to almost completely extinct in a few years (I know I was making $350k a year and then couldn't make a dime).  

With the recent hurricane, there are trades people from all over the country down here helping with the relief effort and rebuilding.

This even includes removing a garage and perhaps not rebuilding it.When you sell the property, you will realize a benefit from the work done, Because of the permit(s).

With the functions of being able to search for criteria, like lets say I want to find a buyer who is willing to pay 60k, do a gut and rebuild job, and has cash, then you would get out a smaller much more managable list for that property.

Where we're at, contractors and really all of the trades, have been kept so busy rebuilding due to all the wildfires over the last 6 years that they truly just don't have capacity.

Had a fire and could not rebuild, the area was rezoned R-1 single family.

Two benefits to the buyer would be having a home of his own and the ability to rebuild his credit.

Simultaneously, you could either convert the existing SFR on the front lot to a duplex, or build a second SFR on the front lot, or potentially demo the house and rebuild a new duplex on the front lot (demolition has some restrictions, which you can look up on the city's website).

Most of the time in my experience, a non-conforming designation is there for future development purposes (dos and don'ts) and also incase the building burns down, the city will not allow you to re-build the same 2 units.