Converting 2/3-flat into Single Family Home?

[amom22]

Spandau, so what did you end up doing? We are currently in the process of looking at 2 flats and converting to a SF. I googled it to see if I could find some information on it and your thread came up. Did you find any help elsewhere? Thanks!

[newby2011]

I am buying a multi unit with six units. I have a large family and would like to combine two units for my private residence and leave the rest for rentals. Or duplex 1st and second floor on each side of the building and leave the top units for rentals. Im really focused on turning the first and second floor on north side of building into one home. One unit is in no way big enough for my family.
Each unit is only two bedrooms. I have four daughters and one son, so i really need the space. The building is low enough that we can afford to do some major remodeling but am wondering about the legallity and process here in chicago.
We love the property, it has a large yard and parking off street, which is like gold to us former northsiders.
If anybody can give me some info or some resources to look at I would appreciate it.

Thanks

[chet everett]

Without knowing where in Chicago this building is, how much you will be paying for the multi-unit and what sorts of long term plans you have for those five kids have I would caution that the probable rental value of 6 two bedroom apartments is something many investors would rather have that some mish mash of enormous "owner's unit" or even two four bedrooms mixed in with a couple of rentals.

All the work to make the kitchesn look / function like bedroom or rec room is gonna be wasted too...

Originally Posted by newby2011

I am buying a multi unit with six units. I have a large family and would like to combine two units for my private residence and leave the rest for rentals. Or duplex 1st and second floor on each side of the building and leave the top units for rentals. Im really focused on turning the first and second floor on north side of building into one home. One unit is in no way big enough for my family.
Each unit is only two bedrooms. I have four daughters and one son, so i really need the space. The building is low enough that we can afford to do some major remodeling but am wondering about the legallity and process here in chicago.
We love the property, it has a large yard and parking off street, which is like gold to us former northsiders.
If anybody can give me some info or some resources to look at I would appreciate it.

Thanks

[newby2011]

The blessing is that the building is mostly gutted, so reconfiguring spaces wont be as much of a challenge. I finally spoke to someone in the assessor's office regarding our situation, which turns out to be quite simple. The gentleman stated that I would have to submit a request to cancel the "Condo Act " that was established by previous owners and have it reassessed. The would reassign a new PIN and voila. Im not too concerned with resale given the price Im paying for the building. Thank you so much for your response. This site provided me with some good questions as i researched this issue.

[ToriaT]

I'm pretty sure it can be done physically. I don't know about zoning and stuff. I own a two flat in Berwyn and I have pondered this just as a mental time wasting exercise and have even come up with a floor plan that would not require a lot of work. There are probably lots of ways to do it to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into a building to change it around an other ways to make smaller changes and repurpose some rooms. In my fantasy re do, the first floor would remain mostly the same. The second floor I would use the living room as a master suite, and enlarge the bathroom so it would end up being a three bedroom home as one of the bedrooms would be eaten up by bathroom/closet space. The staircases would remain the same as it would be very expensive to redo them.