You earned every penny of that acquisition fee!!

I'm confident all the naysayers will become very interested once I replace all of my earned income with passive income.  

I earned the 2.5% commission and negotiated about $8k credits.

Hello Ben,I love your idea of house hacking your primary residence to rent out the basement and start earning some income! 

I'd like to mention that if I make the upgrades aside from the two halves of the duplex, I have the space to close off the living room area on my side, which is one of the additions and make it into a short term rental with it's own parking and walkway along with sufficient enough space in the back yard to make a small in-law quarters/tiny home as well with it's secured fence, parking and walkway.My question is: Do I take the risk, invest in the duplex I will own someday with my hard earned liquid cash, expand and create the two short rentals on the property?

I don't even get asked about my credit or about my net worth, earning, etc. 

Personally I believe that CA rental portfolio investing as a start comes mostly when you have a day job earning 150k/yr, and along the road have the ability to build and scale fast for you to have enough to replace the 150k, it is a lot of work and you will just be buying yourself out of a secured job to an unsecured job.

I've read a bit on how its harder to obtain financing as a 1099 employee vs a W2 and how lenders typically want to see at least 2 years of earnings before they consider lending you out a loan.

The market is cooling and this home may be worth 10% less by the time you try to sell it which would put you under water.If you want to invest wisely, increase your earnings, live on a budget, sacrifice, save up, and put your own money in.

Taking action is the key ingredient.