Hey OP. I totally get what you are thinking and why. Don’t do it. The rental conversion would be an easy $100k+ …. and that’s if nothing goes wrong. In a house that already has lots of likely maintenance issues. And the result is … sharing walls with someone. If you told me this was a house with a finished apartment over a detached garage, that would be TOTALLY different than what you are looking at.

It sounds like what resonates with you is the lot size and the character of an older home. I’d focus your search there - a great lot (and as any homeowner will tell you, that’s another often complex expense and spending $5k on an arborist to remove limbs from mature trees is a thing) and a right-sized, well-maintained home that you can inject more character into via decor and design instead of renovations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely not. You're 50 and single. That's too much house, too much work, too much mortgage, and too much taxes.

With $3M, you're in a position to be very, very comfortable between now and in retirement. But not if you go blowing a bunch of money on a house you definitely don't need. And especially not some 90-year-old work pit.

Spend $600k on a small house, or townhouse or something.

600K in DC Metro is a dump, not in a good/safe area or... far out, or a really tini shoddy TH

I live in an exurb and you can get a very nice SFH in a great school district with a 35-40 min commute to DC for $650k.

Agree this budget is a stretch for the OP.

Anonymous wrote:“You could buy a nice townhome in a community with good amenities and in the best school districts and nice areas for under 1 mil. You still would have outdoor space, just not anything to be a burden to maintain.”

Where?

Fairlington for sure.

According to DCUM:

Old house = deferred maintenance money pit
New house = terribly constructed money pit

Seems like you must have many millions in reserve to buy any house, according to folks on here.

The house is zoned to allow student housing not as a multifamily.