Because someone looking to live in the property will pay more because it's usually an emotionally drive decision.

I live in California, this is a bay area property.were not looking to move out of state and house hacking is less palatable when a duplex costs 1.6 million.

I don't know your living situation but if your paying x,xxx for rent or a mortgage and instead by living in one side and renting out the other you will be paying y,yyy instead and y is less then x that's great, especially if you can rent out your primary residence and make income there too. 

However, I live close-by (30 minute drive), recently retired from my day-job, and if the loan is not too large, I might be willing to do a deal just to learn a bit more about another side of RE.  

I live in Sacramento, and have noticed that people are offering either equal or above asking price even for homes that sometimes need 80-100k in repairs and I can't see how they would even make a profit doing that.

Hey Bryant, that’s so funny I have lived in College Station for the past two years but just recently moved back home after graduation.

I just did a commercial TI on Wolfe rd a month agoI've got a house by Tahoe....pioneer trail when one could we rode our bikes to Stevens Creek to swim :)  we lived behing all american market Blaney and Bolinger ..

After 45 + years as a real estate investor, broker, lender, fund manager and syndicator, I’ve become aware that the “dream” of many investors and investor “hopefuls” is to be able to generate enough cash flow to live off their real estate holdings and accumulate enough wealth to make “work” optional.

These type living arrangements are primarily short term until user circumstances change

I sometimes wonder if people just feel lazy dumping their money into an index fund in the stock market and actually using all that free time to go out and live life.