By "convenient" I mean a few minutes closer to work, stores and family/friends.

On the duplex, We’ll be spending about $20G over the next month in repairs, painting, and furniture but then we’ll be in maintenance mode.  

Ex: re-use stores, good contractors, home improvement loan options. 

@Richard WilkeI realized after finishing my bookkeeping for the year that I spent way more than I expected at one of the chain home improvement stores...

If a neighborhood has a hip coffee shop, nice grocery store, and/or other amenities, for me that is usually an indication that someone (or group of people) much smarter than me has already done their market research to know they won't be losing money on their investment. 

I don't want to purchase the additional furniture before I have a good feeling there's some interest.I'd like to post pictures with furniture to gauge interest.

Your tenants can pay online, in a store, even by credit card.

Inexpensive 2nd's from outlet stores work great, and often cost about $100 +/- for a 10x12 or larger rug.Better yet, put it in your lease to have the TENANT cover 80% of the floor area with their own area carpeting (not wall to wall) at their own expense. 

One thing I can recommend is do a search for these discount appliance stores. 

They will be cheaper in store if you have one local.