James,Welcome to the best choice you've made!

Bronzeville, Hyde Park, Bridgeport are all traditionally great South side neighborhoods.

There are lots of great amenities like the Zoo, Botanical Gardens - many of which include free admission for residents because of historic endowments, Forest Park is larger than Central Park, and there are so many other beautiful historic parks (Tower Grove Park, Benton Park, Lafayette Park) and a variety of unique neighborhoods that offer different lifestyle and investment choices.  

I want to get both tenants out as fast as possible because i plan on living in the top unit and remodeling the bottom unit a bit as well as getting a tenant of my choice in there.

There's no question that investing outside of your home state has more challenges but they can be overcome and sometimes you don't have any choice if your goal is cash flow and you live in a high cost market.

You choices are for you and 'ma to make.Once a new furnace is install - - you're done, it goes with the house. 

Success is a process, failure is a choice

A traditional agent will want you to make offers that are going to be accepted, an investor agent is willing to make offers that are most likely to get rejected. 

For a business owner with $100,000 taxable annual income, the net tax savings for using an S Corporation instead of an LLC in taxes paid every year can be as high as $7,500.Holding PropertiesWhen holding properties as a cash flow investor, the LLC (or LP) is generally the better choice because an LLC has more liberal distribution rules.

I live just west of Portland, and I'm looking to get into REI a little more to supplement my retirement as I'm self-employed (General Contractor) and don't have much of a traditional 401k, etc.I started out buying a duplex as my first house back in 2005, which I lived in one side for 7 years and rented out the other.