Quote from @Mike Levene: Hi @Chris RojasI started exactly the same way (with a triplex not a duplex but not important). 

@Luis Cerwin as others have stated, Nov - Jan is the worst time of year to have a vacancy.Majority of tenants live paycheck-to-paycheck, so all their income goes to Holiday spending starting with Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then xmas, then NYE.January is also historically the worst month for rent payments due to Holiday Hangover Spending.

From my experience working with over 400 investors, those who start with house hacking scale much faster.Good luck!

I recently started my own practice as a bookkeeper and tax preparer, and am excited to learn more about how I can help best service real estate investors!.

I am eyeing up a property I want to buy that costs much more than usual so my plan was to use a hard money loan to purchase, and rehab it with my own money, then sell. 

I'll never forget what he told me, If you ever want to start purchasing real estate simply call this guy and write him a check and don't ask any questions.

How exciting to be just starting out in the space, congrats!

You get out there and put deals together with your eyes wide open to avoid as much as you can. 

Being the heart & soul of the project from start to finish.

Start with VRBO and Airbnb and use their iCal function to sync calendars.