______At least 75-watt bulbs (or CFL equivalent) in all fixtures (where fixture rating permits) in working order.

First, in most jurisdictions you can "act" as the GC in your own home, meaning you can actually do all of the work and/or hire other trades and you can pull your own permits to build your primary residence. 

You could buy a fixer 2 unit or 3 or 4 unit property : 5% down and still add ADUs if city permits it.

It is unclear if he's licensed or unlicensed (I did ask my PM to verify this) but he did all the electrical and plumbing work on the house - and did not pull permits.

-Check how many 'rental' allowed in the HOA, this is extremely important, you don't want to buy condo where rental is not permitted- The condo appreciation and cash flow are really dependent on the school and neighborhood class/city/state wide.- If it's on class A and A school rating, the appreciation for that condo could be higher than even SFR.

Assuming permits take a few weeks, project is 2-3 months, and another 2-4 months to sell, you'll need something like 7 months of holding costs to make your payments but should plan for 12 months as you just never know.

You'll need permits in place.

I would be curious to see if there are going to be any regulations as far as requiring permits.

Hi BP,We have some property and are considering building a main house along with a guest house that we could rent (either long-term or short-term, which are both permitted by town). 

City permits were pretty challenging but definitely a great learning experience