Our attorneys tell us we have a significantly lower eviction rate than PM's in the same neighborhoods.

We put both houses in the MLS and have had to reduce the price by more than 14% and still no offers. 

As far as friends go, when you're young, that generally means the parents of friends as the tendency is they will have money to invest where friends in your age group are less likely to have investable funds. 

If you have never done it before and do not know what all it intel's than I would suggest hiring a professional to handle it. 

Putting 16K down on a fourplex in today's market will put you living (house hacking) in a D area and putting a lot more than 4K into repairs/renovations. 

this is a toughie. hard money specifically is equity-driven, meaning they'll likely want 40%+ down to even entertain the deal. additionally, land without improvements is often very inexpensive (relative to land with improvements), usually pushing below a threshold which makes sense for a hard money lender. if you're not intending to build right away, then i think you'll have the best luck with private money instead of hard money. usually higher leverages than hard money, and more negotiable terms.if you are intending to build on it pretty right away, a ground-up construction loan could work, but those will typically require some ground-up construction experience (on title on other ground-up deals), or an extensive portfolio of heavy rehabs/ rentals/ strong liquidity. those will give you acquisition monies (to buy the land) and build monies (to build the improvements).

You can remodel a nice home much cheaper that a duplex, get better tenants, better appreciation and MUCH less work.

Use the public records for your offer, and negotiate hard, I would add in the special provisions that offer price is based on $x/sq.ft if the house is smaller than the listed sq.ft the price will be adjusted based on the sq.ft. 

When I first went to get preapproved, I was approved for a lower amount than I wanted in a duplex.

If Class B, C  or D, then what credit score are you expecting from an applicant?