I have a crew of people of all trades at discounted prices and the ability to get materials,permits  granite, cabinets @ wholesale.  

Another concern is Permits and Deliveries.

@Seth Larson,First guess time: the conversion(s) was(were) did not have permits issued.

And you'll need reserves in case you go over budget, and money to pay the monthly interest payment, the taxes, the insurance, the permits, the utilities, and the guy to shovel and plow if you are working in the winter.

Sid,Any addition that hasn't been "permitted", should not be counted in the overall sq ft of the building.

DBO meaning Downtown Commercial.I am thinking there is a lot of zoning, permitting, general paperwork and government/historic paperwork and permissions to be given on this. 

It sounds like the owner did the work and not pulled the PERMIT.

and how fast things are selling in your market. of course, there are other possible issues that can creep in - I saw an article today about huge permitting delays (a couple months in some cases!) 

I do not have experience with converting single family homes into multi units, but again if the numbers work and you can get all the required permits to do so, then I do not see why not. 4.

@Dennis Williams - We were limited to a 4 unit building.We had looked at one property that had an un-permitted 5th studio and originator would not look at it at all.Good Luck!