That's certainly planning for the worst (combined with a self-fulfilling prophecy)Or2.

If owner terminates the agreement for a reason other than property manager’s negligence the owner is required to pay the lesser of (i) 4% of the remaining value of an active lease, or (ii) 4% of the value of 12 months of an active lease.For example, if we are receiving $2,700 per month for both duplex leases combined and decide to terminate the lease with 6 months left in a 12 month term then we would have to pay about $650 just to terminate the property management agreement!

The buyers that I work with are keenly aware that there are literally more residential multi-family properties on the market in Oakland than the rest of Alameda County combined!    

I heard that the owner could possibly combine these into one deed and therefore make it eligible? 

But they can be combined right from the start and it makes the insurance side of things so much simpler.

It's a lot of hard work, and takes a lot of some combination of time, effort, and money. 

These tenants are still employed to the best of my knowledge, aren't impacted medically due to COVID-19 and combine for $250K a year in income. 

Higher in worse neighborhoods.Capex and Repairs are usually 15% combined.

I never thought I would be in position to own a rental property, however, the combination of good savings habits along with a downturn in the housing market and it became reality.

On my first purchase I was able to get $4k in lender credit/seller concessions, so I was able to pay about $5k out of pocket for down payment and closing costs combined.