Assuming you are only leaving 5K in equity in a property this would be the ideal scenario. 

Our ideal scenario would be to buy a new house as our primary, live there, rehab, and then start renting it in a year.

It seems like if there are not a large inventory of duplexes then this could be an ideal market for home buyers, who will likely pay more of a premium for their first house (I know I did!).

. ;) Actually I'll just feel better about the whole thing if I have everything in place before I throw thousands of dollars at a marketing campaign.I would like to get some recommendations on a title company in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire (Merrimack county, ideally).

It's not ideal but it can help someone out of a bad situation.

Ideally if you have a good architect and contractor on board early in the process and you ask them the questions and they are part of the team, they will help guide you through this.

True, i do not want to meddle in my current low 3.5% 30yr fixed mortgage as its ideal, real low monthly payments.

Ideally, we would want to start working with someone pretty soon as we also need to identify property quickly, get pre-qualified with a lender and hopefully, close on a property in the next 2 months or so.I'm assuming we want to have our partnership details established before doing all that.All suggestions and advice welcome for this newbie!

I deal with foreign investments everyday.

Perhaps I am too new to this field and am filled with too many wafty ideals, but until a pending reality tackles me down, I'll chase this motivation until it turns into a success story.