@Nichole Wall - when you discover the answer to your question before anybody has a chance to answer, you should post YOUR answer!

If you are able to hold onto the duplex, I would hire a solid property management company and hang on to it.

Hang tight.

It's laborious, messy - but it was far less damaging/challenging than the photos found on the internet...even with plastered walls.  

It will be a single-story ranch with a full semi-finished basement. 9' walls.

Stop hanging out with your deadbeat buddies who spend all day drinking, talking sports, and otherwise wasting away.

We are low hanging fruit, sitting ducks, vulnerable.  

When I subsequently asked the tenant over the phone how many cats she had she said four, which is likely half the number she actually has, but is still a lease violation.At this point I feel like it’s pointless to even ask if the cats are neutered (and therefore less likely to spray urine on walls) because clearly she is willing to lie to me and her attitude seems to be that she makes the rules not me or the lease.

Make it a habit—underwrite one deal a day until you get the hang of it.The tougher part, and I think what you’re really asking, is how to turn solid underwriting into a profitable deal.

At yet another sale there was a brick row house/town house for sale that looked good from the street, but since it was in the middle of the row, to see the back of the house, you had to walk around the block and see the house from the alley, where the entire 3 story brick back wall of the house was laying in the back yard, and there was no back wall standing.