I made some routine repairs finished the basement, cleaned up the lot and repainted the whole house.

Most investors are pivoting towards 2nd floor additions to get a decent profit or new construction, but those are about $150-$250 a square foot due to all the work involved and your level of finishes.

If we go that way, we end up cutting our own throats when customers are willing to pay $21,000, or $3,000 more because they want a good contractor vs. taking a chance with a less-expensive contractor who may drag the job out too long, or not ever finish the job after being paid too much in advance.$18,000 seems to be the average price nationwide.

I live in a owner occupied Duplex in Philadelphia which also has a finished basement which is apartment style but couldn’t be zoned as a third unit.

I live in a owner occupied Duplex in Philadelphia which also has a finished basement which is apartment style but couldn’t be zoned as a third unit.

Most of the time we’re so desperate for them to finish after they’ve started that we just agree to anything.

How nice are finishings? 

Sometimes I only catch it after they’re finished and want to be paid.

The repair guy came outside of the time range he gave me - I think he said monday, one day job and he came back on Tuesday to finish.

In my market, duplexes sell at a marked discount to single family homes (for comparable size and finish quality, can be 30-40% depending on submarket).