Plan to live in the duplex for 1-2 years before finding another multi family. 

Companies like Wal-Mart and Jiffy Lube, as well as Realtors have already been hit with multi-million-dollar lawsuits for sending non-compliant (illegal) text messages without proper (required) consent, or opt-in.You don’t want to risk finding yourself in the same situation, which is why adhering to compliance regulations is so important, so make sure if you are using SMS Marketing for Real Estate, be sure your next campaign is compliant.https://reimachines.com/sms-compliance-for-real-estate/

If you are looking in that area I would suggest finding people that have off-market deals if you don't have those connections already.

There are also limits to what does/doesn't need a permit, so attempting to find properties that don't require walls to be moved or other issues that may require a permit would be helpful too in the interim.

You'll find tons of good info here, I recommend checking out a local meetup or two as they're super helpful to brush shoulders with other folks that have either done what you're doing or are asking the same type of questions. 

@Tom Thomson let us know what you find out from your lawyer!

You'll still find yourself in the same general price point.

That is a great point as well, I have noticed there are a lot of Accountants/Bookkeepers out there that have no idea what they are doing with Real Estate and they think it is like other types of business, they charge based off those businesses and find out they have to do more work and Real Estate needs more details and separate reporting and they do the bare minimum which ends with an investor having to pay someone like me to clean up everything and get them back on track.

I would like to find tax strategies to reduce my taxable income.

In reference to finding the best contractors, I highly recommend networking and getting to know high volume investors in your area and asksing them for recommendations.