I'm looking at flipping but I'm also interested in single family homes; preferably a duplex.  

Do you prefer them?

Personaly, i prefer an in class setting.

I would prefer to ultimately build the business around extracting maximum rent from higher maintenance tenants, and less rent from low maintenance tenants within the same buildings.At this stage, say I have 2 tenants that started renting at $1000 on a 12 month lease.  

check http://austin.narpm.orgI'm a PM (not taking new accounts) and can say that most PMs I know would prefer a lease renewal and turnover avoidance over the leasing fee.

On top of that I prefer to only leverage 15 years which makes it even tougher.

Give me a single family, or duplex, triplex, or fourplex with no HOA over a condo with one any day of the week.House hacking is a great strategy ... just find a great deal in an area that is not too ghetto, preferably with no HOA.

Any reason u prefer payallup over tacoma?

There is certainly a lot more that goes into investing such as financing, finding a RE agent (preferably one who is an investor and works with other investors), etc.Good luck. 

I prefer paper for pension accounts and shut down my Mother's modest account after her death, but this was specific to my own tax and estate planning objectives.I'd be careful to incorporate advice you get on a free public forum.