I would live in one half and have tenant renting out the other to get my feet wet. 

I'm getting licensed to have the knowledge under my belt and kind of get my feet wet in real estate (part time), I'm an extremely motivated person, I've kind of had that entrepreneurial mind set since middle school.

The inspection brought to light many more expenses than we had anticipated: chimney collecting water and needs replaced, roof needs replaced, even decking is wet and needs replaced, insulation is wet and needs replaced, and drywall will need replaced.

I have, however, a somewhat close relationship with the landlord I've rented from for the 8 years previous to buying my house, so somewhat familiar with the in's and out's and frustrations of rental properties.I'm just getting my toes wet and listening to YouTube videos, podcasts, reading content on the site, etc.

Sometimes you just have to jump, get wet , learn from there and continue. 

Id probably live in one of the units for 8-10 months just to get my feet wet in land lording. 

This is a great place to learn and get your feet wet with real estate investing!  

Especially since most of the basements in my area are a little on the wet side.

The tenants neglected to tell me this for 3 weeks and would through a towel over it to keep his feet from getting wet.

I am also thinking of starting small at first to get my feet wet, using 1 or 2 of my properties to 1031 exchange into a 10-25 unit building.