I haven't looked in the Berkshires / Pittsfield, MA in the past, but that's not to say that I wouldn't in the future. 

Wanting to take a 2 bedroom with a decent kitchen and small bathroom and turn it into a 3 bed with no dining room/eat in kitchen and thinking of maybe trying to make the small bathroom a little bigger.

Instead they permit a certain amount of occupants based on how much common area is in the home (kitchen, living rooms, dining rooms, den).

The main reason why homeowners opt not to pull a permit is because building improvement will increase property taxes.

The actual changes are in the high-end SFR market, especially 3 million dollar houses flattening in price, mainly in Silicon Valley and Seattle-that is all I have actually seen.

(Something I HATE doing)The main issue we had on this transaction was that I did not know that the city was a " block to block" city.This just means that it's a lot tougher to value properties because one street could be extremely nice and then you can go down the road and be in a war zone.After we got all of the mess sorted out, we ended up getting a price reduction and we are going to move the deal forward.Here are my top three mistakes.1.

NJ is a very tough place to loan money from the lender side of things.. foreclosure time lines are for ever.so I don't think your being realistic on what you expect.. but I know Patch of land has done a ton of NJ loans. you can go direct.you need more than 20% cash into the deal.. in most instances in a state that is so tough to work in.credit while important is not the main driver in HML.  

I cover the main utilities (electric, gas, water, garbage/recycling), but I have not noticed any drastic changes. 

I haven't raised rents in the past, mainly due to my market, but I'm going to start on my next batch of renewals. 

It will just be used for dining on one side, standing on the other.