You've got to adjust your strategy to fit your market- you are trying to shove a round peg in a square hole and that's why you are getting frustrated. 

Purchase InfoPurchase Price $660,000- First Mortgage -$462,000- Second Mortgage -$0= Downpayment $198,000+ Buying Costs $13,200+ Initial Improvements $10,000= Initial Cash Invested $221,200Square Feet (21 Units) 14,250Cost per Square Foot $46Monthly Rent per Square Foot $0.82Cost per Unit $31,429Average Monthly Rent per Unit $557Mortgages First SecondLoan-To-Cost Ratio 70% 0%Loan-To-Value Ratio 70% 0%Loan Amount $462,000 $0Loan Type AmortizingTerm 30 YearsInterest Rate 6%Payment $2,769.92 $0.00Financial Metrics (Year 1)Annual Gross Rent Multiplier 4.7Operating Expense Ratio 35.9%Debt Coverage Ratio 2.57Cap Rate (Purchase Price) 13.0%Cash on Cash Return 23.6%Income Monthly AnnualGross Rent $11,700 $140,400Vacancy Loss -$585 -$7,020Operating Income $11,115 $133,380Expenses (% of Income) Monthly AnnualCleaning & Maintenance (9%) -$1,000 -$12,000Insurance (4%) -$416 -$4,992Management Fees (9%) -$1,000 -$12,004Taxes (7%) -$782 -$9,387Utilities (6%) -$615 -$7,380Garbage Collection (2%) -$176 -$2,108Operating Expenses (36%) -$3,989 -$47,871Net Performance Monthly AnnualNet Operating Income $7,126 $85,509- Mortgage Payments -$2,770 -$33,239- Year 1 Improvements -$0 -$0= Cash Flow $4,356 $52,270

This would not cost us anything since they are already in the process of doing it and they would only have to go in a few more feet, saving me over $10,000 in the future ($18 / foot).

Back to square one: MLS, showings, offers, counter offers and a lot of time lost before the potential closing. 

I will be relocating and maybe adding a couple radiators to reconfigure some rooms, no added square footage.  

Hello all,I recently sold my business and am looking to getting my feet wet in real estate.I'm looking for an experienced agent, who doesn't mind working with a newbie investor.I would like to invest around $3MM in several apartment complexes over the next year.Cheers!

After it's clamped measure diagonally from corner to corner to make sure it's 'square'.  

At the last minute I got cold feet and did a 20 year mortgage, not a 15, so I had to make a backup plan to pay the $45K as the mortgage would not be small enough to pay off with a refi if there was no increase in value. 

For something like that, I would assume that the extra space would cost about the same as new construction (on a per-square-foot basis). 

Number of  square feet?