Also, be very careful about "working" in Thailand without a work permit.  

Do you know if the garage remodel is permitted?

However, a quick permit search prior to making an offer revealed that the owner had not received a single permit for any work conducted, and received a code violation notice for the ADU last week with compliance due in about 30 days. 

I also make my way to others when my schedule permits.  

Well, they said anything less than 180-days was not permitted, which is uncommon as most subdivisions in Kona that don't allow daily and weekly rentals, do allow 30-day minimum rentals.

I know in SoCal you don't need to pull permits prior to building for any additions less than 500SF unless its Coastal Commission.

And that they will pull permits accordingly?  

The red tape and hoops that you have to deal with can be a nightmare and cause months of delay before you even touch a tree much less break ground.Also I agree with Devon, some architects do not live in reality (as a building contractor I live with it all to much) so it is important that you have a product to produce that you can not only sell in your market, but you can tweak and add value engineering to as you learn to construct your product, this can be equated to time or material, and is in my opinion the number one reason you would consider recreating a building multiple times and only change the façade. 

Dawn, Darren and Jay are ALL correct AND if they're city of Milwaukee tax foreclosures, that means a city inspector has already gone through them THOROUGHLY and done a full report on ANY and EVERY issue wrong inside and out and that means they want it fixed up to code (i.e. fixed just right, not some rigged up quick fix) and ALL plumbing and electrical work MUST be permitted, thus you're hiring a master plumber/electrician for that work at around $70/hr +/-.I very, very much caution anyone from skirting the permit rules not just for possible trouble with the city, lots of people do all sorts of unpermitted work and get away with it from city's point of view, but for liability reasons.

The appraiser stated that the unit in back was never permitted for a second unit (so, it was a SFR).