it's out of state so this is not a house-hack so why a duplex?

@Jesse ValdezI just evicted someone in a house I rent by the room.

I get what your saying I was employed in the late 80s by a big syndicator in SF who had over 250 different apartments  senior housing student housing shopping  MHP and i headed up land development for them..

@Sebastian AlborsIn my experience, buying a single-family home (SFH) in Asheville and house hacking with a family member like your brother can be a smart way to balance costs.

I found the house on Zillow and ended up going through an agent.

But by and large I like the construction as the sub trades are far more professional than most any one who is doing rehab work on houses..

Check "flexible" dates for a house with a pool to weed out the condos with shared pools.

Once you are on site you can decide if your $20K should be used as a downpayment on a double to house hack (to stop renting), a single to just stop renting, or a single to lease out.

These are multiple assets of all sorts of things, retail, houses, condos, office. 

To answer your question condos are better if they allow it but if you want to hop right in it with less risk I would go for a house or multi family deal.