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
Guides handles the paperwork and sequencing of property: surveys, permits, contractor schedules, closing documents and renovation budgets broken into stages. Each guide states what a step costs and how long it usually takes. Useful for first-time buyers, renovators and anyone managing a build without a project manager on retainer.
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
Downsizing without the regret: a working sequence
The successful move to a smaller home is decided months before the For Sale sign — by measurements, use data, and one honest guest-room negotiation.
Rosa Marchetti
How to choose windows for a renovation without regret
Frames, glazing, and installation quality each matter more than brand — and the ENERGY STAR label does most of the comparing for you.
David Jordan
Closing costs, decoded for the first-time buyer
Two to five percent of the purchase price arrives as a separate bill on closing day — here is what each line is, which ones move, and how to shrink them.
David Jordan
How to buy a historic home without surprises
Old houses reward buyers who read the paperwork before the poetry — here is the checklist, from landmark restrictions to insurance math.
Rosa Marchetti
A kitchen renovation in the right order
Demo before design is how six-week kitchens become six months. The sequence below is the one contractors wish every client arrived with.
Rosa Marchetti