Quote from @Veronica Williams: Hi, I am on my first flip, live in WA state found a partner in Ohaio, the rehab is in OH.

If you are living there you can keep the 4% rate.If you are not living there you can rent it out to pay for the property taxes. 

Any advice is welcome.Are you going to live in one of the units, or is this investment only?

If you have a $400k duplex and you live in half and rent halfOr if you have a $200k rental property Your deductible rental expenses will be the same. 

I live in LA, and have a rental here as well.

Quote from @David Hathaway: Shay Yao, I have found if you can invest within an hour and a half or less away from where you live its much easier to build a super squad of A players that can super scaling a rental portfolio.

Yes, House Hacking seems like the most ideal option when considering my first investment (open to other forms of ownership, such as live-in flips as well).

(You may need some time to figure out the market and where you want to live there.

Or we gradually perform high-quality updates for a live-in flip, then roll the equity into a new home.Regarding rental income, we aim to boost income, lower our effective tax rate by generating more low tax-drag income with rental income (since there’s not much we can do to lower out W2 tax bills) and have retirement cash flow.To compare the financial impact over 10-20 years, we want to analyze renting versus flipping.

That said, I live in Texas, and I have found that the property taxes and insurance are prohibitively high to make a short term rental work here.