Right now, my thought is to purchase a small multi-family unit (duplex or triplex) as a long term hold.

Has anyone done hard money loans on multi units?  

I have always had a draw for multi-units and my very ambitious goal would be to have 40 within the first 5 years of investing! 

Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia are possibilities.Eventually, if I can do well with a few SFR's, I'd like to move into multi-family, perhaps starting with duplexes and triplexes and eventually apartment complexes.

We finally bought a duplex. We’ll be moving in shortly but first want to renovate the unit we’ll be living in. Our plan is to do that, live in the renovated unit until the tenant’s lease downstairs is up in February. ...

This way the tenant can still maintain a degree of respect for the landlord while still being trained into the process like you mentioned.

I was wondering if anyone from there have some insights on the surrounding areas, property type (single family, multi), and/or airbnb market?

Focusing on one thing being multi-family is what I am trying to do at the moment so this episode reinforced that strategy. 

I've located the first multi family property I would like to purchase.

Real estate, like any investment, carries risk,  but at the end of the day these risks are just a line item, with various degrees of success based on the due diligence you put into each one.