Yeah, I'd imagine this is pretty typical.  

The seller insisted that I use his attorney as the escrow agent, which I typically don’t do, but the deal was relatively cut and dry so I was agreeable after drafting favorable escrow language.

Obviously we typically talk about brrr as finding a distressed property and making sure that all-in with rehab costs, the project costs around 75% of ARV in order to do the cash-out refi after seasoning. 

The red flag should be the price of the duplex and most likely the seller is just noting cash only as he know lenders typically won't lend to anything <$50k and he's trying to avoid owner financing.  

Also, if you are doing tear downs and or large additions n higher end markets, you can’t use the same template each time for everything, but you can for some items (paint colors for instance).It is efficient to have name, description, item numbers, etc on a spreadsheet of items you typically buy which makes ordering materials quick and easy.

Typically, if you make less than $100K in real estate income, you can take up to $25K paper loss on depreciation. 

What method do property managers typically bill you? 

There are several different scenarios that could play out within the scope of your question:If you refer a seller to another broker/agent, and they take the listing and sell the property, you would typically ask that broker for a referral fee, paid to your broker.

In the past 4 years, I have bought multi-family apartments and find that the cash flow there is great, and in this environment (not typical), the appreciation was good too.And now to do both (Yes and No); If I was in your shoes trying to decide what to do, I would focus on finding myself a place to live in that I could call my own.

Here is typically what I use for numbers, these are % of the rent collected.