Also, pet dander and my dog throwing her toys all over the place.

I currently have ZERO real estate experience (Sales Engineer for my day job), but have been toying with the idea of eliminating my $900+/mo apartment rent expense and purchasing a duplex to live in half and rent out the other half.After some quick research this seems like no-brainer and I am almost ashamed that I didn't think of this sooner.

I lived in the Napa valley for years and at our country club we had O probably 25 to 40 pilots  all based out of SF... mainly long haul to Asia type routes.. and most of them had some side gig going and or owned some nice commercial rental portfolios.. plus there was a fund manager who specialized in pilots.I know when I would take some the guys up in my Cirrus  the ones that did not have a back ground in GA  when we went to land they freaked out thought I was flying them right into the ground.And or I let them try to land and they fare at 40 feet..

At the end of the day (aka, your final resale), if your profits are satisfactory to Y O U then ignore everyone else and dam*  the torpedo's, full speed ahead!

@Andrew Herrig, that's actually not a bad idea   I've toyed with going to other markets (particularly ones without our murderous property taxes, like Colorado, Arizona, Carolinas, etc.)  

Of course it is kind of a mute point if toy hold it for longer than 90 dyas, but the Deed will be recorded into public record, and it should be correct.

So my answer changes from No to Yes.

If you are in this for the long haul, form your company (we use a LLC), create an Operating Agreement, get you financial statement together and start hitting local mom and pop banks for mortgage loans or commercial lines (they'll work with you to structure what is best).

Don't forget to figure in the cost of demolishing the old house, in accordance with codes and hauling it off toan approved area.

Getting started early is a huge advantage over the long haul, stay active on the site.