What's the typically management fee and are there professional management cos in the area? 

Minh and I fall in the camp that believes that although making investments in bay area and making sense out of those is hard but once you figure that out - the results are much superior than any other typically available options.   

Typical premium rates for high wildfire risk areas are double compared to normal.

The key is that 2 year work history that you'll need to establish.In certain circumstances you can use the income before you even receive your first paystub (certain relocation and job change scenarios), however typically you'll need to receive atleast 1 paystub to use it.If you have had no work within the last 12 months preceeding this new job then you may need to be on this job for a min of 6 months before you can close on this new loan which would hamper your plans to close within 45 days on this duplex.Then again scenario #3 if you have the credit and the down payment and the property cash flows from conventional underwriting perspective and you have "no credit card debts," on your credit report then you may be able to qualify any way since your debt to income or DTI will be 0% (property cash flows) no debt outstanding to qualify for as the duplex will be adding income to your scenario.I've had an underwriter okay scenario #3 above but have never funded a deal like.

I don't mind paying extra for a quality report if necessary. 

The only downside to them, and i don't know if it's typical or not, is the fact that they have to sell the carpet in rolls of 12x12.

I don't have a lot of cash laying around and typically have very little left over at the end of each month but am determined to start collecting rental property.  

It will be a great marketing piece as well if the local newspapers report it as well ! 

We have not done the background check and don't know what will it report, but he said that he was in a car with three other friends in North Dakota (very conservative state, according to him) and all got caught because they had marijuana pipes.  

We do turnkey in Birmingham and we focus solely on B/B+ properties, which typically run from $65k-$120k depending on the property and the locations, average rent of $950, so we know the area well.