@Charles Thurber: I haven't dealt with the City on that particular issue, but like any municipal process, I'd expect it to be slow.

To me that is Charles Village, you will always have renter, however prices are high, so  details of what you want to do needed to give you better idea about it.Best type is a town house these days. 

Quote from @Charles Seaman: @Cristian Rocael Carrillo lives in VA and can offer some insight about finding deals there. 

We moved to The Woodlands after hurricane Laura hit our hometown of Lake Charles, LA and we are trying to learn this market. 

@Charles Carillo

Please explain that more Charles.

There certainly are consequences Charles.

I used to live where you do (Silver Spring) and I'm sure there are plenty of parts of Prince George's County and D.C. that are no different than the parts of Atlanta you were evaluating.And, of course, there are areas where this type of stuff doesn't happen, but where property values are (as you might expect) higher.

@Charles Renn How would you recommend narrowing down search results for a "duplex"?

@Charles Large@Kush Khandelwal I think Kush wants to buy a property for its own use and not primarily as an investment.