@Lolo Druff Real Estate Investing is not like Trading Stocks or Crytocurrency.Real Estate Investing requires some deep thought and research from you as an Investor.Having 400k to deploy to multiple duplexes is a great start but you have some questions to ask and answer yourself.

Bay Park / Clairemont / Carlsbad / Oceanside are all top-tier markets that fetch top dollar (see the Yellow & Red).Move your search slightly inland, or further down South and inland, in order to get something done for 1/2 the price, with similar rents (not quite as high, but definitely not 50% less like the purchase price would be)

Without diving so deep into the weeds, the biggest factors I tell people who want to start out passively are:1.

Red Stick REI and The RING are the two big ones in the BR area.

If you don't know how deep the water is, you may get more than just your "feet wet".Third Lesson.Cheap and discount are not the same thing. 

If you can't close fast enough or has too much red tape, then you lose the deal to others.

Read Gary Keller's The Millionaire Real Estate Investor for a deep dive on expenses. 

., without having to go to the state where it's located and asking around, i say this because there has to be a good way to estimate these things before going deep into the dealAny insights on this guys?

Are there any potential red flags I should be aware of?

I wasn't sure if asking my FHA lender about switching it to commercial will raise red flags.