If you consider it you should require they pay 4 months in advance.This will cover them paying the first months rent,time to immediately evict them if they violate a provision in the lease,and cover paint and carpet again.If they violate the lease for any reason all the money paid upfront is NON-REFUNDABLE.Don't just stick a tenant in there to put one in.Make them meet extra security demands or wait on a better tenant to come along.You have to make a tenant like that have a bunch of "skin" in the game.They may or may not have reformed themselves and if they have they should not mind putting extra down.

(Bear in mind, this is City of Atlanta... and they hate builders and renovators with a personal passion)For that price, I also expect the architect to take my license and go pull the permit himself, walking the plans through the building department.

In terms of eventual resale (it would be a rental at first, if I buy it), is adding an extra bathroom or half bath necessary?

The gas dryers are more expensive to purchase in the first place, and aren't even in stock so a few days of extra lead time is needed to buy (assuming you buy new - I did that for the house I live in).Why can't you just have a 220V/240V line run into the area where the dryer would sit, so that an electric dryer could be used?

I really don't think an extra 7 days on market will matter.

You'd have to put down an extra-ordinarily large amount to hold the 50% rule.

It's worth at least 300k but unfortunately it is in a historical area in the "bay of refuge" and the house has been updated with some unpermitted additions (of staircases and an extra bathroom.)

I am looking for a way to make extra money in my "spare time" from home.

The truth is, the recent temporary extension of the payroll tax cut is being funded by a "small fee" tacked onto governemnt backed mortgages (30 years of extra fees for homebuyers from now on [and probably forever] to pay for a temporary - 6 months - payroll tax cut).

If they can't then they can cough up the extra dough to buy the property.