Looking to close on my first property within the next 6 months, I have narrowed it down to either a cheap Condo or a duplex. 

I've narrowed down searches through using the terms "multi-family" and "duplex".

My advice would be to get somewhat narrow with what you're looking for.

To keep costs low, I created this on my own which is possible if your list is narrowed down. 

The more narrow you tie your keywords, you can keep budget quite low.

But sure, if you want recommendations for GOOD ones, then that may take some narrowing of definition.Mind you, there's still a lot to be said for having a separate Loan for each property in your portfolio...

I applied for several loans (HELOC and Home Equity) for a deal I'm trying to do, got approved for both types, narrowed it down, decided to go with the HELOC (interest-only minimum payments for the first 10 years) for the reuse-ability and what I thought was the fact that you only make interest payments on the amount used, similar to the way a credit card works.Wellllllll I emailed to loan company and told them to withdraw my application because I don't want that (Home Equity) loan anymore, and the representative called me to find out why.

For my goals I’ve narrowed it down to doing a cash out refinance or selling it and doing a 1031 exchange.

Read books, listen to the podcasts, and try to narrow down your goals --- then a path forward will become evident

.- Once I had my narrower list, I dug into census data to look at job and population growth, net migration, diversification of the local economy.