Typically above foothill is an ideal school district but there's always exceptions.

We're looking at side-by-side or up/down duplexes that are 1500-2000 square feet per side with 3 bedrooms and 2-3 bathrooms per side.Does anybody on here own a duplex that fits this description?

Hopefully something around $175k is ideal.

Repair Estimation/Budgeting - Ability to create detailed Scopes of Work & repair costs budgetsBudget Tracking - Ability to track your actual expenses against your initial budgetScheduling - Ability to create a project plan & track project progressChecklists/To Dos - Ability to track daily to-dos and checklists of items that need to be completedCalendars - Ideally all of your Schedules & To-Dos feed into a Calendar that you can use to manage all of your projects in one location.Document Management - Place to store project documents and photosHere are some Project Management tools that you might consider: Trello/Asana/Zoho Projects/Basecamp - General project management software that includes tasks, Gantt scheduling, calendars, project forums, document storage & team collaboration tools. 

Ideally I would like to house hack a duplex for the first year or two then hold as an investment.

(A seasoned seller will smell this a mile away.)You might not have a property available that fits your investment strategy, forcing you to either a) pay taxes, b) buy a less than stellar deal or c) overpay for one that does.The fund hack: Diversification and high returnsHere's where investment funds come in.

In my opinion, Calling will be the better way to go about it and fit bootstrappers because of lower direct costs.

I love hospitalityI like doing real estateI’ve had jobs in both I’m dreaming a little here but ummm always looking for something new to venture and learnAnyone have any good recommendations on what hotel franchises would be ideal for a first time hotelier?

You will want to consult with a Canadian accountant and attorney with cross-boarder business/real estate experience to decide on an ownership structure which best fits your immediate needs, but allows you to evolve to your longer term goal.If you plan to keep your retained earnings in the U.S.A. for re-investment, you will want to use a U.S.A.

Ideally once more capital is available I would move to a different market.