The city is pushing very hard to get a restaurant, but at end of the day we will take whoever is qualified.

Recommend making the lease 13-15 months, so it ends at end of Feb or March.

Personally, I would let the brother know what you plan to do (raise rent to FMV at end of lease), find out if he intends to stay at full market rate, then screen appropriately if he wants to stay (the current lease doesn't get changed, he passes the normal background check, and pays full rent on the new lease he signs after the old one ends--or goes month-to-month).

Home inspectors will tell you something is at end of expected life, but that doesn't mean there is not more life left.3.

Fixing things that break aka maintenance and also replacing things that are at end of life like a roof replacement also called cap ex (capital expenditures).

Case in point the area where I live has many houses downtown built on cedar post foundations, which are at end of life, and its a hot market, so what it appears is many investors just do nothing with the foundation if the house is within a couple inches of level even though the posts are rotten and will cause structural issues a few years down the road. 

At end the end of this point I've narrowed down the locations i want to invest in and I'm starting to do research on real estate agents, property managers, lenders to get the ball rolling.

At end of year 1, your analysis makes it look like you only have $32k of equity, but you actually have $132k.  

Current tennant will be out at end of June.   

In light of COVID, I was wondering if there were any restrictions on getting rid of the month-to-month tenants in a duplex I am buying at end of the month.