I know that an architect and a designer will be vital members of my team when tackling these types of projects, but I'm curious on the workflow involved when using them!

However, you need to be absolutely clear about your investment goals first before tackling any of your aforementioned boroughs. 

Tackle it the same way.

You’ve tackled the loan issue, in large part through good advice in the thread that helped you know what questions to ask.

I've been listening to Brandon and Josh at 1.5-2x speed commuting 4-5 hours a week (lol, it's true, people think I'm nuts when they hear me) and tackling a little bit of reading (as much as I can with a 20 month old and a 2 week old at home.)  

I feel like I'm ready to tackle my next adventure.

I'll let someone else tackle the duplex vs. single question.  

I justified this because I could tackle this down payment on my own (no investors) and I wasn't relying on the cash-flow to get into the deal.

This is my fiances dream.I plan to have 8 rentals buy 6 years with 2 paid off and start tackling to mortgages on the others at that point so get a total passive income.  

Knowing just 20% can help you tackle 80% or more of the issues that will ever come up.