Most of the top performing stocks over the past several years paid zero dividend and many that paid a high dividend went nowhere, and the same is true for real estate markets.

Does anyone know whether or not I can build a box around the meter to allow for me to paint the same color as the brick of the home, and leave it to where the electric company can access? 

I am aware of the 1 year primary residence contingency that the FHA loan entails but is it true that you have to have 25% of the equity to have tenants in a duplex as well.

They may like colors that you think are ugly, they may not be as tidy as you would like them to be, but they are paying the rent. 

Also I've heard from a lender you cant have someone gift you money for the down payment on an investment property is this true.

I did my homework before using Mark, and everything I read about him was 100% true.

I'm not a lawyer so this is all true in my head and not real life.

The other portion of your question and getting down to the tax benefits of it are going to be best addressed by a CPA yes, as you're going to be going off of a % base or SqFt base and it sounds like it isn't a true 'duplex' equal down the middle in terms of sizing- to then split your deductions 50% down the middle would fall into the real of we don't go there and mess with Uncle Sam that way and stay out of trouble.

It's true that you have to commit to keeping the tenant for one year after accepting payment - however, you can evict if they fail to keep up on their rent going forward. 

.- I was able to get approved for access to private investigator software to find the true owners of these properties since conventional skiptracing produced poor results.