It sounds more like you are doing STR which is not flipping.I'm not sure how you are buying rentals with only 5-10% down as those are numbers for owner occupied homes, not rentals. 

I also want to make sure I can get my own personal residence under a home owner occupied conventional loan. 

All three spaces are currently occupied and I haven't seen any blood or heard any screaming...

It is now well marketed, 98% occupied, and extremely profitable.Example 3: We invested in a self storage asset in the Western Colorado town of Grand Junction.  

Being that you don't live on the property, most likely you'll need to use a private mortgage lender, which most require leases right now.Is it realistic to assume you can get it occupied within 30 days?

Since this is an owner occupied FHA loan, the loan wont close if you can't move into it (talk with your lender). 

Ultimately, I don't NEED a house/condo right now, although I do want one and a place I can call home.Ideally, I'd like to invest in my local area and find a duplex that I can owner-occupy, but again the market down here is so crazy.

Also as was mentioned before, it must be owner occupied for at least 1 year.

The whole neighborhood is being transformed with the help of other fix/flip investors and one owner-occupied house.PHASE 1 (complete): Remodeled a 1 BR house that was vacant and now rented for $850/month.

Two Denver area cities that had been silent on the issue of STRs -- neither supporting nor prohibiting them -- have new laws or are about to pass new laws to proactively legalize non-owner occupied Airbnb.