Multi-family is going to cost more than a single family home and might require a larger down payment.What is your goal exactly and what does a little bit of cash flow mean to you?

What matters is positive and growing NOI, controlled interest expense, and controlled capex and improvement costs.  

Can try to reposition to Class B, but neighborhood may impede these efforts.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, but 15-20% should be used to also cover tenant nonpayment, eviction costs & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores of 560-620, many blemishes, but should have no evictions in last 2 years.

If a property is considered uninhabitable, the Landlord must provide the tenant a hotel at no cost to the tenant (this much is a preexisting requirement).

I was not sure on the way to decide on a price, nor to estimate the repair cost.  

So you’ll be deducting 1/27th of the cost per year.

Meaning, when it came time to actually sell the property, (for tax purposes) the cost basis of the property was reduced by the full depreciation amount, reducing the amount of capital loss (which could be used to offset more profitable investment).5.

Either one would be our primary residence, so down payment and closing costs are fairly the same.

It is challenging but we committed to going there every 4-6 weeks and having a great team on the ground ( will cost you some extra money) but they are the difference in having issueswe have one of the best cleaners in the area and our guy that cleans the grills does all my light maintenance and guest interaction if I need it(pets, too many guests etc.)3-4 hours would be a dream and you can definitely do it but you have to commit to going there every 4-5/6 weeks In my opinion because there will be things you need to address or upkeep- this is obviously only if you decide to self manage. 

I basically offered to pay closing costs and seller to finance the downpayment.