Sometimes it might take a few days more because of waiting for permit inspection, but that shouldn't be a problem.Honestly, I'm happy to find a property with a dead/damaged/missing furnace. 

Make sure the addition is permitted first.

My GC has stated that since he is the one pulling permits, i wont be allowed to do anything to the house since he is liable for anything that happens on-site. 

If time permits, consider visiting local investment clubs, you'll have an opportunity to meet other investors both new like yourself and seasoned.  

You may find some info by checking with the city's building planning department, ask them if any permits have been pulled on the property, otherwise trying to contact the last owner somehow might be another way.

SD is among the slowest I have dealt with when it came to permits.

They had a whole crew of code enforcement and permitting personnel visit the property (including the big code boss), and someone of them suggested that the frame was not salvageable.

I presume that in LA it is illegal to rent a unit without a permit, but I highly doubt there is any law dictating how noi is figured.

How would you describe your experience with the DC permit office? 

the 2nd association it resonates is the highly consumption-driven society we live in. in my area (coastal, urban southern california) i'm surrounded by 2 distinct lifestyles. there's the majority: seems like 95% of the local population who are renters, driving luxury cars, sporting fancy clothes, jewelry, hairdos, etc but obviously living paycheck to paycheck as exemplified by hardly a day somebody or the other is spotted  getting their car repo'ed by a camera crew. the rarer are the landlords, who in this area seem to be of mostly asian demographics (chinese, koreans, japanese) who live obviously very frugally: old 80s model sedan, oldfashion business cloths, always eating simple meal from home, seemingly never splurging $$$ other than into expanding their portfolio), my observance is relatively very few landlords in the area own relatively huge portfolios, each.with the advent of these infomercials and the internet (ie, BP) more and more people want to get a 'piece of the REI pie' and more power to them. there does seem to be this dream of rags to riches and while its ok to dream, do most people actually expect their life to turn around like that, as portrayed in most of the infomercials or even in the everyday setting where the masses living paycheck to paycheck, are spending their last expendable dollars not on depositing into savings acount, but blowing $20 on scratchies etc. in summary, is my observation reminds me of my days when i worked on wall st and the 'ra trace' was so obvious with dime a dozen stock brokers makin 6fig salaries at some point but blowing it on recreational drugs apparently costing thousands of dollars a pop to the point the next week they are broke again and that $ wasnt invested but wasted.