Not sure why I am wasting my time trying to give you advise nor why you would waste your time posting to ask for advice that you will not consider if it does not match what you have already made up in your mind ... you asked for advice from experienced investors who have direct experience in the markets you are considering and you got it ... do with it what you will ...

I funded it with a local from Charleston within hours.. as it was a no brainer.so one of the guys was kind of persistent.. he then had me call some lady in FLA so I played along asking for the broker etc.. gave me the name of a company that quasi came up on google.. but it was in Boston.. got ahold of the owner in Boston.. he was way pissed as he has been getting a lot of calls.. then the lady of course with a FLA phone number claiming to be in Atlanta.. says just send us 500 and we have 2,000 private lenders in our data base and we will match you right up.. 

As of 2011, Your driver's license must match the property address being claimed for the Homestead exemptionThe penalty for claiming a property that is not your homestead is payment of the back taxes along with interest and penalties

I could not find any comps in the area that match for duplex, only single family homes.Am I on the right page?

Once I understand the numbers, THEN show me the graphs so I can double check that the image in my head matches Excel's visual representation.

This was also the reason that I did not invest any more in my 401K passed the matching level, because even after paying the taxes, I'm still better off investing in the real estate at the return I'm able to generate. 

Do I just need to find different contractors that match the "$20 per sqft" model or is that rule of thumb just a wives tale?

Alternately you could also look for someone who is a match for when you aren't there. 

A dollar for dollar match basically means that you are bringing 50% of project costs to the table. 

@Cecil MasonBeing interested in Memphis myself, I looked up the zip code: http://www.city-data.com/zips/38119.htmlNot knowing the area, the numbers from your town home deal don't match with the pricing from 2013 data on the site I linked.