If the house has a Certificate of Occupancy as an SRO, you would be required to complete a long and arduous process to convert it to anything else. This includes getting letters of non-harassment from previous SRO occupants going back to when it was occupied. This process can take a year or more, depending on the difficulty of tracking down former residents, etc. Your lawyer can best advise you on this requirement.

Additionally, this will be treated as a commercial purchase, and both downpayment requirements and interest rates for commercial mortgages are higher than they are for residential purchases.

Finally, there will most likely be extensive renovations required in order to convert the house back to a single family. Not only will this involve lots of paperwork with the Department of Buildings, but when your renovation is done you will need a final inspection before a new Certificate of Occupancy is issued as well.

So this is not something to be entered into lightly; if you do choose to go ahead with it, make sure you have a full stable of professionals you can rely on throughout (lawyer, mortgage broker, real estate broker, general contractor or separate tradespeople and expediters if you're going to be your own GC, etc.).

Good luck!

Sean,

Thanks for your response. Not sure if i am replying to your post properly but the zoning is R7B F.A.R:3. The owner says they have approval to remove SRO status from city as well as approval from nyc hpd cert of no harrassment. Dont know what any of it means or how i would go about confirming its accuracy. My initial thought is that since it is vacant i would be able to return it to single family status, but i have no facts behind my assumption.

Multi

What is the zoning classification? Have an agent look up the ordinance for that zoning class and post up here.



Sean Dawes