Turning a Single Family Home into a Duplex

[Bryant Amundson]

I am curious to know who has experience rehabbing a SFR to a duplex.

I have a property I am interested in. It would be my primary residence as my wife make simple renovations to make it livable for us then when we move out in 1-2 years rehab/add on to turn it into a duplex and put two sets of renters in.

It is a 2-1 that we plan on adding another bathroom and bedroom in basement, then adding on from there. 

So looking at an end product of a duplex that is a 3-2, and a 2-1. 

Thoughts?

Especially if you live in the Minneapolis area. I'd love to hear view points from all over the spectrum.

Thanks

[Bruce Runn]

As an owner of duplexes and a general contractor who renovates SF and multi family properties, you'd be much much better off trying to buy a current duplex than trying to convert a single family property into a duplex even if you bought a small one and lived in the entire duplex until you moved assuming house hacking isn't for you.   I can only speak to properties in Minneapolis since that's where all of my properties and have done a lot of creative things to transform/ repurpose properties.  The effort and money to get through the red tape/execution of the transformation most likely would not be worthwhile.     A very easy answer would be to go in and talk to a city planner where the property is located and they will tell you if it could even be done based on their housing restrictions.