I've got a duplex I'm going to see in a few hours. This will be my first "investment" purchase. We've rented out a SFH for 8 years.

It used to be our personal home and it's gone well. I've read and learned a lot here. But this is the first one to buy as an investment.

The good things: It's in a good B neighborhood. Electric is already split. Occupied with long term tenants and room for rent increases. Just got a new roof. Price is right at $80k. Built in 1980 and is half brick, half siding.

I had it on my zillow last year but we weren't quite ready to buy. The listing expired and I kept it in my favorites. Just happened to see it listed in the paper fsbo last week. They've dropped the price $5K since the mls listing and put the new roof on it. It's an older man selling off his few properties and he's got someone helping him sell them.

Anyways, the thing that has me worried is that it is a SFH conversion to a duplex. That is fine, but it looks like there were no permits to do the conversion. The county records still show it as a sfh and it's assessed at a really low amount - $35K.

I live in a smallish town in one of the most economically depressed areas of the country. We don't have a bunch of tyrannical government leaders looking into our lives. But, at the same time, I'm wondering if this could be an issue if we were to purchase the property.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Any other things I should be looking for?

I am a licensed contractor, investor and owner of many rentals. Many of my clients forget about City Requirements when it comes to Units/Rental -- that's two or more rentals on one parcel. A converted home into a duplex needs:

1) The finalized City Permits

2) A certificate of occupancy - legal for people to live in both units.

3) Obtain the insurance policy's from the current owner, see if they had a landlord protector policy on the two units, even if one was owner occupied.

4) Check to see what the parking requirements are for a duplex.

A friend purchased a converted duplex and years later the city found out there wasn't enough parking. So my friend was going to convert it back to a house and loose $1500 a month on income. Instead I took my 12" diamond saw and cut an opening in the rear block wall fence to allow the rear tenant to pull their car in the back yard, on a current cement pad. Then we added a sliding gate. All for under $2,000.

You might go check the zoning map. In my teeny little town, if I go to City Hall, they have a big map of the whole town that's a combination floodplain/zoning map. It's color-coded in various chunks--- this stuff is zoned R-1 residential, this stuff is zoned R-3 residential, this stuff is zoned B-1 local business, this stuff is zoned B-2 highway business, etc.

Then cross-check it against the local "schedule of permitted uses" in your local City Code. It may be available online, or at the public library. So there, it will go through each of the zoning codes on one axis, and it will have a variety of options along another axis. And so if I check my city code, I can see that I can have a sfh in anything but L-1 and MH zoned areas; and I can have a duplex or a triplex in anything except for R-1, L-1, AG, and MH zones; and I can have a quad, a bigger complex, an apartment hotel, or a rooming house in anything except for R-1, R-2, L-1, AG, or MH-zoned areas... etc.

Haha Robert, one of the driveways is a concrete slab at the end of the front walk way. And your solution is one of the advantages of having a back alley. I love older neighborhoods with alleys.

Linda, our county definitely goes to reassess the property when a sale and new deed is recorded. I'm guessing they would see it then. Yes, the conversion has been there for a while and I'll find out how long.

Maybe the owner did it correctly and the county just never updated the property records. I've seen many mistakes on the county records. I'll find out this evening.

Deanna, I did find a general zoning map online. Looks to be in an R1 but our city does allow for spot changes to the zoning. I'll check the official map and see what's up.

And thanks for the heads up on the cross checking what each zone allows.

Also check for non-conforming use in your city ordinances.

Our village wanted to become big time so they enacted some zoning laws back in 1989 time frame.

When I moved here in 1992 the land next to mine had 13 calves grazing on it. The barn that was on the property had ben built sometime in late 1950's. Owner continued to let cattle graze on it for about 8 more years before I bought the land. Then I let horses graze on it until around 2016.

This is the time the city told me I couldn’t use the land to let horses, cattle and such be on it as the land was zoned Residential and not agriculture.

I checked city ordinances and the ordinance said that land IN USE before the current ordinances would allow animals as a non-conforming use permit.

Yes, if you want to make the city mad at you just show them what the city ordinances say.

Ask Robert J of CA

Mortgage company will require appraisal and inspection of the property

Good point, JB!

Wipe "Duplex" from your vocabulary and look into the possibility of calling the second unit an Accessory Dwelling Unit.

If they are allowed, then more than half your work is done, assuming the work is done to code.

Once we determined an ADU was allowed by right, we pulled all the permits that should have been pulled by the previous owner, had electricians and plumbers come in and bless the existing work and then had it all inspected. Luckily our inspector was not a total jerk and didn't make us rip all the drywall down so he could see the insulation, but we did cut a hole in one room so he could check there as a sample.

Don't ask what the difference is between an ADU and a duplex, I don't know. Except an ADU has to be "clearly subservient" to the original house. So we turned the illegal two-bedroom apartment downstairs into a one-bedroom with utility room and that worked.

We went to see and we're passing on it. One side is section 8 and both side have so much stuff in there.

Biggest concern is there is only one exit to each side. No back or side doors. To us it screamed "fire hazzard". There really isn't a good place to cut out doors either. It's a shame because it's got a great divided back yard.

There is no way the section 8 lady could get out a window if there were a fire. Way too much furniture blocking all the windows. They are small rooms anyways so most any furniture would block them in.

There were other issues that would require maintenance and updates which we could handle. But I really don't want someone's death on me because there isn't a good way to get out when there's a fire.