There are ways to deregulate the units, but it takes a long time as well as having a cooperating tenant. 

Depending on how cooperative she is, you can even offer to pay some of her moving costs to help her get situated somewhere else.

When she moved in, it was a small Mini Cooper--I gave her permission to use the outlet on the building (electric I pay for).

(Usually, it's greed that makes me ignore the signs :) )  I think too often we get excited about deals and numbers and ignore the reality of what it takes to close them, cooperation by all parties.

Normally HOA's should have reserve funds, but if your fellow owners are all cheapo, like the ones I bought into, then forget about it.Though its only a duplex, there's still many things you guys have to cooperate and agrees on.

Hi @Binyamin Cooper,Welcome to the BiggerPockets community!

Expect cooperation and appreciation from the municipality for having - as a new owner - for stepping-up to resolve these issues? 

Well the universe never cooperated with us on this business adventure and it hasn't rented for 7 months.

I suggest to only do this with cooperative sellers because the attorney is going to frequently need to talk to them and any relatives throughout the process.

Tenants are friendly and cooperative, but I don't know what will happen if they're approached with more aggressive tactics like renovictions etc (i.e. tenants have a Right of First Refusal, and also I have no idea how knowledgeable they are).With the right negotiator, I'm willing to split profits for each unit that's turned over to market rents.