A neighbor who has the same size duplex gets about $1800/month for one unit and does STR in the extra bedroom in her unit and is able to cover her mortgage completely.  

Having a solid foundation is key, adding significant value to every deal allows you to grow,  I would say with your $50K go out and do a rehab and make $30K on a flip so you can add $20K to your $50K  ($10K set aside for taxes) do it a few times so you have a great launching pad and rehab experience for the rentals. dont buy turn key rentals, always buy below value, and push the equity with a rehab, and right now in the market cycle, only buy great deals, marginal deals will burn you when this market changes.

We were on our way to tour another property and we had some extra time so we went by this property.

It could be renting out the extra bedroom to a friend, etc.If you can't yet qualify for a loan, and let's say you are renting a home/apartment from someone, and you had an extra bedroom, you could ask your landlord if it'd be OKAY to rent out the extra bedroom to someone, while you live there as well.But if you could get someone to help you get a loan to begin with, I think living in a duplex or a home and renting out the other sides or bedrooms, would be a GREAT way to get started.For now, dig into all the awesome resources on this side and LEARN as much as possible!

I wouldn’t ever pay extra for better cabinets or special color countertops.

Do I need to have an extra LLC to conduct REO Transaction?

There are many rules regarding zoning, and environmental issues. you can easily get burned if you don't know what you are doing.

I want to also do some renovations and make the downstairs basement extra room and turn it into a room by adding a wall and closet.

It may sound nice to pay a 5% management fee but the extra fees can add up to be more than the other company that charges 10% with no add-on fees.

Of note when I assembled them originally, I used construction adhesive on all connecting joints and added an extra trim head cabinet screw on large pieces to really hold them together.