I have a fair amount of equity in both properties and will have my primary paid off soon. 

I have no intention of selling and wanted to maintain it as rental.

:) Assumed the condition of the duplex has recently been upgraded I think your expenses are fairly accurate.

I just thought I would relay my costly lesson in 'fairness'. 

Seems the 'tried and true' stuff isn't performing as well as we'd hoped using fairly conservative estimates.Best of luck, sounds like you have an awesome start.

If the new loan and the old 2nd meet certain criteria (basically the new loan being a rate and term refi of the 1st, the 2nd being fairly small, closing costs being low) then the 2nd could be automatically subordinated to the new 1st, regardless of the sequence they were recorded.

Judging by the photos of available houses for rent, they do a good job of maintaining their interiors, but I would not want to live next door to their dead lawn rentals. 

I don't really have a good reason beside I thought they cash flowed better and easier to maintain one building (In theory). 

If they are VERY professional, they will have their processes in writing as verification that it is enforced equally and fairly by their entire staff. 6.

I receive postcards and mailers from realtors offering 1% on the listing side quite often.I've also had realtors offer to kick me back part of their commission on the buying side as well.So I know this is starting to become a fairly common practice at least in my area.