A framer friend of mine stated that he thought the shop was built this way and this is not due to a high load, and he thought I could get away with some bracing, but again, he isn't an engineer.

Same concept in an easter NC town might be a good comp?

I also noticed that this building was built in the 100's .

New Orleans is a tough town for good contractors I think.

However, on Thursday a tornado went overhead (didn't touch down in town) and did severe damage to the property I wanted to put an offer on.

I do not accept offers from an out of town no name mortgage company. 

Hello to this great community, I'm glad I finally found a community around real estate.Well to introduce you, my name is Stelios 32 yo from Heraklion, Greece(Crete Island), married with 1 kid.As for Real Estate, right now I'm working on buying 2 studio apartments in my area(Heraklion).According to my newbie research in the area, the market in my town must be right now in phase 1 but I'm not 100% sure, to be honest.Bureaucracy alone is one hell of work in my country and I already work 3 months on fixing papers, waiting for tax systems to unlock so we can get some tax papers needed and much more things...Well to consider numbers, the 2 apartments are in the center of my town and they are both sold at the deep discount of 23600€ right now if you ask me this is a very rare price.

I live and invest in San Antonio and there are new neighborhoods and new houses being built all over; would it be wise to buy one and put a tenant in it right away? 

Also how big of a house can be built on a 1500 sq ft lot? 

I have built only traditional SF on foundations, not tiny homes.