Once I am able to find a property that I can owner-occupy, I plan to renovate/refinish the unit I would be living in while renting out the other unit, and then repeating that once the tenant's lease has ended.

Originally posted by @David Weis: Kingdom Man by Tony Evans Tony Evans is a repeat customer in my restaurant.

Early this year my wife and I sold an apartment for a nice profit (we bought cash and lived in it for 1.5yrs) and it took me few months to realize... maybe we can repeat it (buy a broken house/apartment, fix it and sell it) but we should educate ourselves better after I failed miserable in the hype of 2005-07 Real Estate bubble and credit is no so good.

It is run by @J Scott, who is a frequent contributor to this great site.Also, at the top of this page, click on the "learn tab" and you could be spending hours on the Information that is available.Raymond

It bears repeating: stick to your numbers.

I'm a Comercial investor from SF, but in the south bay frequently.

Rinse and repeat.

@Becky Shuta repeatedly sending the same thing will be picked up by our automated spam filters. 

After a year are two I would rent the unit that I was living in and move to another 2 or 4 family and repeat the process a few times.

I would only go this route if required under legislation.You could even specify a different treatment for tenants who are frequently late (i.e. 2, or more, times in a year) and have the late fee assessed on the 2nd.When we assess a late fee, it is due with the overdue balance of rent.If it is written into the lease, there is no need to send a letter ... though you might send the tenant an email reminding them they now owe a late fee in addition to their rental arrears.We also have a hard-stop where we issue a Notice to Vacate: For tenants who are late paying rent for the first time we will wait until the 7th.