What's the typically management fee and are there professional management cos in the area? 

Minh and I fall in the camp that believes that although making investments in bay area and making sense out of those is hard but once you figure that out - the results are much superior than any other typically available options.   

Typical premium rates for high wildfire risk areas are double compared to normal.

Until you gain at least a basic comfort level with estimating costs, you are at the mercy of the contractor whether you pay them to give you a bid or not.  

The key is that 2 year work history that you'll need to establish.In certain circumstances you can use the income before you even receive your first paystub (certain relocation and job change scenarios), however typically you'll need to receive atleast 1 paystub to use it.If you have had no work within the last 12 months preceeding this new job then you may need to be on this job for a min of 6 months before you can close on this new loan which would hamper your plans to close within 45 days on this duplex.Then again scenario #3 if you have the credit and the down payment and the property cash flows from conventional underwriting perspective and you have "no credit card debts," on your credit report then you may be able to qualify any way since your debt to income or DTI will be 0% (property cash flows) no debt outstanding to qualify for as the duplex will be adding income to your scenario.I've had an underwriter okay scenario #3 above but have never funded a deal like.

The Finance Minister announced steps to curb the influx of foreign capital into the Canadian Real Estate Market  (in which he really meant TO and Vancouver ... down east we are not really suffering from the influx of foreign money ... sure we lost a 50-unit deal a couple of years ago to a Chinese investor, but the property was not worth what s/he paid, so we'll see it back on the market eventually).That said, Ottawa is only removing a loophole which has allowed foreigners to purchase a residence in Canada, claim it as their principal residence and then benefit from the personal residence {captial gains} tax exemption when they sell.  

The only downside to them, and i don't know if it's typical or not, is the fact that they have to sell the carpet in rolls of 12x12.

I don't have a lot of cash laying around and typically have very little left over at the end of each month but am determined to start collecting rental property.  

We do turnkey in Birmingham and we focus solely on B/B+ properties, which typically run from $65k-$120k depending on the property and the locations, average rent of $950, so we know the area well.

Ideally the rent covers the mortgage so you're gaining equity and potentially living for free.