What it takes to turn an office tower into apartments
Office-to-residential conversion hinges on floor depth, plumbing, and light — most 1970s-and-later office floors are simply too deep to make legal bedrooms.
David JordanGuides
Step-by-step answers to the procedural side of property: what a survey covers, how permits are filed, when contractors get paid, what stages cost.
How to read a floor plan before you fall for the apartment
A floor plan tells you where daylight dies, whether the bedroom wall touches the elevator, and how much of the advertised square footage is hallway — if you know where to look.
Rosa Marchetti
Why the federal historic tax credit will not touch your own house
The 20% credit behind a decade of mill-to-apartment conversions runs on one rule about income-producing use — here is how it actually works.
David Jordan
How to read a survey (and the plat map that came with it)
The most boring document in the closing stack decides where your property actually ends — fences, driveways, and disputes included. Twenty minutes of map literacy prevents all of it.
Rosa Marchetti
What to check on a first apartment tour (beyond the staging)
Thirty minutes and a phone's worth of tests — water pressure, phone signal, noise, and the lease's fine print — separate the apartment from its photographs.
Rosa Marchetti