I've got a friend who is buying his first single family home.  They are planning on putting a kitchen in the basement and renting it out to friends/family.  Its zoned as a single family home and has everything necessa...

Incredibly grateful to be a part of such an excellent cohort.- Alex H

If I acquire a Victorian home with steep roofing, I am not even sure there are qualified roofers who can tackle the complexity.

In MA, property owners are REQUIRED to bring a property into a lead safe condition (called compliance) if a child under the age of 6 resides in the house/apartment. 

Hugely depends on the municipality, their work load, and the project's complexity.

Same process.. just more complex/complicated for large developments. 

It has potential to even fit 5 units, or four spacious apartments and one commercial unit (I think a soundproof event space in the HUGE basement would be incredible).

If you need to inspect units in an apartment building that will have to be arranged with the property manager and tenants, if you just need to check out the HVAC of an industrial property, that's usually a bit simpler to arrange. 

We opted to get an apartment for the time being.

I had a deal under contract that would have used up 150k of his commitment and 5k of my own, but he very much did not like that he had to be apart of the LLC and that he had to be a guarantor on the mortgage.