I'm also going to offer the tenant a parking spot in an attached garage and access to the laundry room with the hopes that I could push my ask from $2000 to $2500.After a few years building equity, I am planning to take a home equity loan and buy a single family home while still maintaining the duplex as an income property.

No , not at all    , I dont generally charge by the hour , I am good , that set up there cost me about $ 40 grand , I charge for the end result , not the process .

Some one slips and falls, normally it needs to be bigger than a few grand for them to think attorney.

There was good reason to have a formal dining room at one time...

By searching out mispriced assets - Assets (property) that is being sold for less than what it's worth.Let's take a look at how our Sokcho Investors apply Intelligent Investing rules to Property #2.Original Asking Price: KRW 150,000,000After Negotiations: KRW 100,000,000 + 10,000,000 for all the furnitureKey Money deposit from new tenant: KRW 100,000,000Out of Pocket Price for our investor: KRW 10,000,000For KRW 10,000,000 our investors were able to get a room full of very nice furniture (in fact, one regret they had was leaving the nice furniture in there and not replacing it with sturdier, furniture) and control of an apartment in this building:Here's an important point to consider: The negotiation down to KRW 110,000,000 wasn't simply an arbitrary number to 'buy low' - but it was based on understanding the market and knowing what the current key money rate for the apartment was.

And, be careful about having a bed in there too...ie, don't use the guest room as your home office unless you can remove the bed before the auditor shows up at your door--they never do surprise audits.  

There is too much room for error.

If there's room to move on the rent, take it up by $50.

I self manage 8 properties in Florida and I think we are doing pretty good but have much room for improvement and growth! 

Everyone has one or more -- one per room-- and they just work.