We're in the early part of my career, but have already had successes with real estate. 

Apparently Wendy does not want to keep working low paying jobs and is trying to make a living off wholesaling which I don’t think is a bad idea.

Since people pay a fair amount of taxes (similar to NY and CA) the least they expect is free of charge public services Here in LA people have to suffer a burdensome and highly dysfunctional planning administration asking ridiculous amounts of useless studies and documentation, charging insane fees for very bad services.Architects and owners have to deal with up to 10 different agencies with their own requirements, timeline, fees and applications, resulting in massive delays and costs over the roof.

I'm in the middle of doing those now, the fees aren't bad, the interest rate is 5.49%   30 year fixed. 

The zip code 38111 has some good and bad areas so it depends on where the house is, size, year etc. 

I would say, no matter where you are that buying a Duplex for house hacking is a bad idea because any vacancy could be a nightmare.  

If you need a loan that certainly adds to closing due to all the  hoops the bank requires you to jump through 700 rent is not bad for a 37,000$ house .that is not a bad deal if the place doesn’t need a bunch of work ,but if you pay a property manager that is going to really burden your profit down .

Mold is part of flipping it just depends how bad.

If their credit isn't perfect because of some event, a lease option can give them time to improve it while occupying the home they want to own.Lease options are NOT good for people who are habitually bad with their money.

If yest, then keep more equity in the property.2) Where are you in your career and on your path towards retirement?