Updated over 5 years ago on . Most recent reply
Help...purchasing first house hack. Basement and Deck ?s
We are in negotiation on a 2 flat in Chicagoland and are really nervous! I have a few questions for the community. Thanks in advance for your help!
- The first floor unit is duplex down but the Cook county assessor's site doesn't have basement as livable space. Does this mean they didn't pull permits? Is this an issue if we eventually would move a bedroom downstairs in the basement and open up the upstairs living space? The current downstairs bedroom is counted in the bedroom count on the MLS.
- We would want (need?) to add a window in the basement area where we want the new bedroom to go (there is already one bedroom with window). What do you think that would cost? I looked online for egress windows and it seems like 5-6K is the norm.
- The two story deck needs to be fixed upstairs in the unit that would be our rental...the agent/seller said it is not safe. It looks to need some new floor boards and railing. My loan officer cautioned that it may get noted in the appraisal process and thus they'd require it fixed by close for underwriting. Sellers trying to offer a credit instead of fixing - this could help in our negotiation as they don't want to go through the hassle to fix. Should we negotiate this or push to have it fixed by close?
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You can pull FOIA to see if permits were ever pulled. Most duplex down basements (excluding new construction) in Chicago were done without permits, it's up to you how comfortable you are with that.
Adding an egress window could be 1-2k or even less I don't think it will be 5-6k.