It's not quite as easy as renting out two sides of a duplex, but with the right marketing and management you could rent out the extra unit to supplement the mortgage payment. 

Alternatively the other side of the city (Pikesville, Towson outskirts) still decent rentals but they are farther from employment centers.

A great thing about my team is we handle the sale and property management side for investors!

I mean I highly doubt( but sure there will be other who say otherwise just because) you will find a very good investment property listed on MLS or other publically available service.On a side note if I did have aprroximatley 400k equity in two of my homes could I use any of that to invest in another property?

Also your perspective are you an agent, pm or investor.For example in Cleveland the east side has tons of A communities by income standards but the turn times of how long a property sits on the market is atrocious.

A deal this small wouldn’t make sense as a partnership unless the original intent was to scale and grow together assuming this deal works out.In regard to the financing, if you can’t get it on your own without someone else’s balance sheet and income then it would be very difficult to untangle that partnership since he’d be a personal guarantor right along side you.  

Without being able to make money as an agent remotely, the only other viable option I see is just go back into cybersecurity with a W2, and invest on the side.

I'd be happy to connect to discuss the Hard Money Lender side of things.

There's a lot on the landlord side that you'll want to get caught up on and it will take some time to get your systems right but I think it's worth it.

One of the 8 townhomes is already a STR, but they don't have the same problem that I do since they are on the opposite side.