We are in the very beginning of fact finding here so I don't know the answers to a lot of your questions, yet. My husband and I, as he puts it, have a house porn problem. lol We have both dreamed of fixing up old houses, we're young and we do have the stamina.
It's hard to say how long it's going to take. There is 8 years into it but they weren't working on it full time. He completed the stuff that would scare me, the electrical, plumbing, new heaters, a/c, water heaters, etc.
It is listed on the historical registry which may create some hoops but it also creates opportunities. There and funds, grants, and tax credits that can be used. I am positive that it is the proverbial money pit. That said, the house feels sturdy and from our initial walk through doesn't seem to have any major problems. We would get a professional opinion on that before we made any decisions. It sounds like the owner would be more than happy to get us started on the right path. He is passionate about finding the right people for the house so that it can get the attention that it needs. One of the other agents somewhat jokingly told my husband that the owner would give it away if he found the right people.
I'm not sure what we would do with our current inn. I do believe there is enough demand. We have owned this one for 2 years and seen it grow exponentially and I feel like we've barely scraped the surface. There is a new conference center coming in downtown in the next year. We are currently the only lodging downtown and the only b&b. Worst case scenario, our current inn is already broke up into 4 separate units that we could rent as apartments if we weren't getting the traffic we needed to support both.
These old houses are perfectly set up for b&b's because they were meant to have servants. The attic floor is perfectly set up for innkeepers quarters. We have a tech school in town that has a very good culinary program. My thought was to offer room and board to a student to cook and help with cleaning. They would also then get experience to put on their resume.
Sorry about the book I'm writing here. I've got so much floating around in my head it helps to write it all out and get it focused. My main concern is resources. We do ok but are not wealthy by any means. My husband is very new at real estate so we don't have any idea what he'll be making yet. I still have a full time job that right now I have to keep. I see things improving but that isn't definite.
So even though my head says it would be smart to wait until we know more. I think what I'll do is research and find out what exactly we'll need and what resources we can take advantage of, etc. Maybe I'll do the research and see that it just isn't feasible for us right now or maybe it'll work out and I can have my dream b&b..