Could be they were on big lots and more pool house type or who knows.You might also have better luck if you are leaving the garage for use, and building the apartment on top of the garage.Let us know if you have success and the war stories.

My land is also buildable and I have plans from an architect for a 3 bd/2 ba home which would cost 300k to build (it's in CA) and is in an excellent STR location...but I'd need a construction loan to build it.

If you need help with construction design, build, management of property I’m here to help.

How you build out your STR will provide the most margin of safety in the majority of markets.

For transparency:Our vision is to build a portfolio of STR and MTR. 

Your lease or statute may address this, but this is clearly endangering the lives of fellow tenants in the building, which is non-curable.

In Charlotte there were many construction cranes, indicating active building going on there. 

Came across this Deal from heritagegroupcapital.com, They are buying 2, 100k industrial fully tenanted/leased buildings in North East Indiana, near Fort Wayne.

Once the project is complete, you determine market rate and buy out their share.Let's say it cost $60,000 to build the house and it is appraised for $120,000 after you are done (not including the land, which you already own).

Fast forward to today and I'm preparing to use Jeff (Blueprint) to fund a new build.