If you are looking to house hack and rent out a portion of your duplex you must be very careful and aware what market rent is in the area the home is located, are comparable rents including utilities, etc.

While I understand I won't cash flow, the incentives for me are to own my own property, not pay rent, and hopefully with the income from the other units my portion would be less than paying rent anyway.

I'm not sure that the proposal to the underwriters will fix your issue - it will just delay the payment of the underwater portion of the mortgage until June.

Only the commercial portion of the property is currently being utilized and the two residential portions are vacant and in good shape, only needing minor cosmetics and a good cleaning!!

It may not be feasible to submeter each unit, but consider whether it makes sense to submeter portions of the building (for example, 1 submeter for every 3 units).  

The principal portion of your mortgage payment is not an expense and comes from the net operating income. 

I used www.kapre.comMostly self teaching and has a 15 hour online portion at the end.

My agent could not get any portion paid for at before or at closing.

Hard Money is going to cost you a portion of your profit that you could otherwise keep for yourself by using your own money.

@Kevin Fox - I agree that owners can use online tools to a large portion of the management (if the tools are built for them) and then licensed managers for the physical representation and local knowledge.