But with the vacation rental, your debt would be paid off, with a princely income for the rest of your life.

A professional company costs more but they will do a better job of protecting your property, income, time, and sanity.Here's my generic guide for finding a PM.Start by going to www.narpm.org to search their directory of managers.

If the duplex is listed at $515k, you could probably qualify and use your VA loan for the unit you are living in, and they will be able to use the projected rental income of the second unit to cover that difference. keep in mid that loan limits vary by County. 

I add it to my excel sheet as a reminder to send the form for rent increase.   

There are some years, that income and expenses will be less than your budget and other years where it is more.If you have more properties, and have the property for more years, you will reduce the risk of outliers to your budget.

Hopefully you have a contract and can follow the terms of the contract. get an attorney, give them notice they are behind schedule and place them in default. you need to terminate them the proper way to make sure they do not come back after you for additional costs.

Let's look at MSA median incomes, because reality is when "investing" in a MSA Real Estate, well, revenue and profitability will be DIRECTLY dictated by your customer bases ability to pay, right. 

This is especially relevant to zip code 13224, where there's evidence of higher-income demographics and an increased rate of new building permits, which correlates with a market that can sustain higher-end flips.MoM change in searchesHigh Volume of Searches Related to Rentals: Keywords like "houses for rent Syracuse," "apartments for rent Syracuse NY," and "Syracuse apartments for rent" show a consistently high average monthly search volume of ~ 5,000.

It's all going to depend on the IRS being willing to accept the addition of cash to the settlement statement to equate a replacement of the FIRPTA withholding. 

I have a good income producing job, however, I have a 6 member household with teens, preteens, and children who are eating up my house like Pacman, lol.