If it's vacant, we'll walk around it and peek into any parts we can see, look under the crawl space and so forth.

Natural gas is cleaner, easier when renting or selling and requires less space.

Throughout this time, I have been thinking a lot and researching about whether it would make sense to continue spending the time renovating, or if I should buy refurbished, or if I should even look to purchase new.For those who are experienced in this space, I was wondering if anyone has ever done a financial case study to see if manually building a HUD code approved mobile home (via Home Depot materials) could potentially be cheaper than purchasing new?  

I can't weigh in on that at all, just share information I found from a company that operates in this space.

A newly acquired building has storage units for each apartment unit in the basement. (12 units)  There is little to no mention of these spaces in existing rental agreements (from prior owner).

I am branching out from single family investing into the large multifamily space in the Austin- San Antonio, TX MSA's area.

Perhaps if you buy a multi with a smaller and a bigger unit mix, you can first occupy the small unit, then move to the bigger unit if you need more space, then ultimately move outward and upward when the time is right.

I would recommend my real estate agent as he is an investor too and knows his space.

 I think there's definitely validity to this strategy as companies reduce their lease spaces in the coming years.

The questions so far:Re: zoning - Do we run into floor space ratio issues if/when the basement is converted to finished space, even though there will still only be two or three units total in the building?