I am interested in buying a smaller home (around 1000-1300 sq ft) in an up and coming part of town. The majority of these homes are not more than 3 bedroom, 2 bath. I would like 4 bedrooms at around 1800 sq feet.

When I am looking for homes, how do I know if the house is a good candidate for an addition (room, rooms or whole second story)? Perhaps just ripping down the house and starting over?

How do I figure out how much something like this would cost? How do I even begin researching this topic?

Before planning an addition to any side of the house, check with your local building department to find out what your required building setbacks from the property lines are. If your addition will encroach into a setback, you will need to file for a zoning variance which could take several months (depending on where you live) to get approved IF it is approved at all. If you add a second story to a house, there is usually a height restriction also - I don't know where this house is.

There is no such thing as a "problem". It's all in the way you perceive a situation.

I forgot to mention, again depending on where you live, you can figure the cost of a new addition from ground up with utilities etc could be approx between 150 and 200 per square foot. Maybe more where you are. Remember, the cost of gas just boosted the cost of ALL construction materials because of trucking etc.

> There is no such thing as a "problem". It's all in the way you perceive a situation <