So far we have 19 units and have done the individual key per unit thing.

It is pretty amazing stuff. 80+% of our leads/rentals come from online lead generation so it is very efficient and we text message the vast majority of leads which saves tons of time. 

What a base hit vs home run is also will vary for every individual, but if you don't play you'll never win.

When you have such a major area like the Bay Area and Sacramento regions within 2-3 hours drive and lots of high wage earning individuals in those markets I would believe they will continue to vacation there.

Does anyone know of a hard money lender that would float money to purchase an online auction property?

I looked up online and couldn't find anything concrete.Also because this is my first rental in Howard County, can I request if there's anything else I need to be aware of that others learnt the hard way?

That is risky in itself.It would seem a lot wiser to take those individual retirement plans and invest them into something they can each do independently such as smaller properties, trust deeds, crowdfunds focused on real estate based assets, or the like.

I’m a builder in the Florida Panhandle and my wife is looking to get her real estate license via an online course.

The only way this would be possible, at least to my understanding, would be to put the duplex in an individual's name so we could refinance with a bank on a 30 year loan.A question for my fellow CPA's or other's who have done this: how could we make this work as far as taxes are concerned? 

If you have one single lease then they should all, individually be fully responsible for the entire lease.