I live in the Pacific Northwest, I'm a bit priced out of the market, I'm attracted to buying a duplex or fourplex in some state in the Southwest or Southeast where I can better afford to buy, I would like to move there and live in one of the units, but it seems like an overwhelming project to decide where to buy it seems there are a lot of factors involved and it's difficult for me to come to a decision.

This will help you start to see how these criteria impact what your site can actually support, so when you actually pursue a project site and you get an engineer involved you aren't surprised by what he tells you can be designed for that property. 

One is worth $220,000 and the duplex I house hack if I moved out and got at market tenants in both sides would be worth $280,000 leaving about an $600 cash flow and a 10% CoC return to attract an investor.

Additionally, I negotiated that the seller do a new exterior paint job ($20k), $6,500 in landscaping, and $5,700 in deck work to transform the exterior to attract new quality tenants.

A $50K house is not going to be in a nice area or attract quality tenants.

We tried an outsource screening service once, but were unsatisfied with their process - which was designed for Class A tenants.With 3,000 units, an outsource company would probably promise to modify their processes to whatever you wanted that was legal.

Over the the episodes from the past two weeks, David from the BiggerPockets podcast has brought up that real estate will be harder and harder to from the "small guy" to get into each year due to factors like: inflation, hedge funds being hyperactive in the market, the lack of supply and high demand causing an increasingly competitive market, real estate being a more attractive investment for our current economic condition, etc... 

Yes, I agree that any needed maintenance work is just needed and expected (roof, mechanicals, etc) and not substantially change any values, so to focus on what may attract good tenants and higher rents (adding a deck or dishwasher, etc.). 

The property is also in a very attractive location, within walking distance to the downtown area, and has an extremely rich history as it is was the historic town hospital. 

We spent a little more then usual because we wanted the finished product to be hi quality and we spent on nicer finishes, design and staging.