One of the biggest issues is probably borrower default—whether due to mismanagement, market downturns, or unforeseen circumstances, lenders can end up in long, costly recovery processes.

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.

Can try to reposition to Class B, but neighborhood may impede these efforts.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, but 15-20% should be used to also cover tenant nonpayment, eviction costs & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores of 560-620 (approaching 22% probability of default), many blemishes, but should have no evictions in last 2 years.

I completely agree with @Ashish Acharya's points about the cost-effectiveness of a HELOC and the potential credit implications if it’s secured by your primary residence.

Paying a bit more might be justified if the pro forma income is very achievable, but $360,000 seems too high unless renovations are already complete.Factor in the costs and timeline for completing renovations for the studio and the fifth park-owned home.

I can't imagine flying out there for a day or two with a hotel can cost you $10K.Flying out there is like you paying for an insurance. 

Here's a big "math" you overlooked for quite a few years.Right now $388k in equity, minus (let's go all out) $100k in closing costs, gets you a walk away of $288k in equity.Use that $288k as a 20% DP, and you should have $1.44M in property value,...not $415k. 

Perhaps if your partner was a general contractor or handyman type there may be some merit there to reduce costs / increase profitability.If your partner enjoys deal sourcing, a better move might be for him to become an agent - so he could legally collect commissions from finding deals and managing properties for multiple people. 

I don't expect to know everything by then, but I hope to develop a basic strategy that prevents me from making the most common and costly mistakes that a newbie can make.

If a prop is 250k and you can refi at 70% LTV you want to get it at 175k minus rehab costs.