[giantg2]

Many of the trades can make good money. Especially in areas that forbid owners to work on their own homes, even to replace an existing water heater (like NYC).

[vasco]

How would they know?

[giantg2]

Well, I think NYC made it law that hardware stores can only sell hot water heaters to licensed contractors. Not sure what other restrictions there are.

[tehlike]

They don't, but the moment you need real permits or need to refi etc they might ask for and enforce permits.

[gorbachev]

Try buying or selling a house with unlicensed "modifications". It's an interesting exercise.

[giantg2]

Very true. Depending on the modifications (like electrical), insurance could deny claims if they find unapproved/unpermitted work, even if it wasn't the cause, or the cause was unknown (depends on the policy).

[sokoloff]

Around here, if you don’t want to buy a house with un-permitted work, it’s no problem; there’s another buyer standing right behind you (often literally) who will.

[tehlike]

This is true but like i said when you need real permit etc this becomes tricky.