I've been reading and learning a lot and decided to get started in this by buying a duplex and living in one unit while renting out the other.

Olympic sized pool, hot tubs, on-site restaurant, yoga, pilates, gym, steam, sauna, and management company to take care of it all.

I did read in the IRS tax code that expenses like furniture have to individually be less than $2,500 to be expensed instead of having to be capitalized.

Because a tooth paste cap lodged in the drain is not a covered maintenance issue, they want to charge me $150 to take care of it.

Read it. 

We did not go through probate as remaining properties were taken care of prior to them passing away. 

With this being a condo, I would also think carefully about how much you will realistically need a PM.

if you want Zero risk then park in your brokerage account and buy USFR, a wisdom tree ETF, pays 5.39% interest, holds 8 week UT treasury floating rate notes only, so you don't need to worry about FDIC or SPIC insurance as only way US govt doesn't pay is if we get nuked, then you won't much care about Yieldif you ok with mild risk, I put my emergency funds cash into a group of different BDCs i like, these are business development companies (mini-banks) that make loans to small to medium size companies.

I appreciate anyone who took the time to read this!

Read books and attend conferences.For me, here is how I first started BP (BiggerPockets):- BP forums - BP podcast (Rookie) - Books (Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Profit First, and some BP ones)- Local Meetup in my area - Conferences (BPCON2022, BPCON2023, and soon BPCON2024)I hope this helps!