Saw that someone arrived on the blog yesterday using the following search term “convert duplex into single family home”.
Here’s my advice: Don’t do it. Or, at least, don’t do it with permits.
Regular readers know I’m strongly in favor of using permits for every single construction project. It’s a bit more expensive, but you want to be able to sleep at night knowing that the work was done properly and is in compliance with relevant city codes.
So, why am I advocating doing any conversion of a duplex into a single family without permits?
This is one piece of work that can cause severe, permanent value destruction.
Why? Many older buildings have grandfathered units. For example: You might have a 4plex on a lot which is now zoned only for duplexes.
If you go to the city and ask for a permit to remove a unit in the aforementioned building and turn it into a triplex, they will happily give it to you. But later, when you want to re-convert the triplex into a 4plex, you will not be able to.
Why does this matter? After all, it’s not like, in converting from a 4plex to a triplex, you’re losing square footage.
But, as we’ve discussed previously, generally the smaller the unit, the higher the rent per square foot. Given the choice, you’d always rather have more units rather than fewer in any given square footage.
So, it’s insane to remove a unit, because you will impair the achievable rents and, therefore, the value. And the change is likely to be irreversible.