@jason chaseWhat your lender is asking for is what we commonly call a "comfort letter".It is a checkbox on their list, and will be scrutinized with the attempt to shift liability to the accounting firm that wrote it should the loan go south and the lender cannot collect from the lendee.The AICPA as well as errors & omissions insurers strongly discourage tax and accounting firms from writing these letters. 

Investing with the idea rhat you will collect rent to help pay for your duplex will not make you much of a profit and will not keep up with inflation.

And don't hesitate to send it to collections.

About Me:- Software Engineer, lots of experience in data collection / analysis.

The action of active management includes advertising and listing the property, screening and placing tenants, as well as collecting the rent and handling maintenance calls.

I thought if I was able to collect all of the rent for some period of time to recoup the rehab costs before I start paying the owner.

If the court kicks them out and you get your houseback w/o any back rent, you can sue them, you can win but collections is another story. 

You will not be able to take deprecation thus will pay taxes on the money you collect.

Here are the questions we asked (I think I got these from a David Greene book but I probably inserted some of my own so take it for what it's worth):What experience they have managing rentals personallyHow many doors their company managesHow long have they been in businessWhat they feel their company’s strengths are.How they collect rentWhat systems they have in place to make things efficientHow long they have worked for their current company.What is the monthly percentage of rent they’ll take?

The current owner goes door to door to collect rent every month but I'm not doing that.