I promise you when people see your posts they say "Man I probably should look into SEO, but I'm not hiring that hot head."

Your head will spin with some of the offers you get, near free $. 

Realizing that until you jump head first, you will not truly know what questions to ask.

@Nathan Milholin hit the nail on the head and I couldn't agree more, with perhaps the addition that maintenance will also depend on what condition the property currently is at purchase. 

@Matthew CrivelliYou hit the head on the nail.

If you're worried about missing the beach, the closest areas to drive to are the Florida Panhandle and the Charleston and Savannah areas- Hilton Head Island, Tybee Island, etc. 

@William Costello, yes, I'll be heading there tomorrow. 

The reason for the analysis is to compare purchasing a SFR vs an owner-occupied duplex, both with conventional financing 80% and 85% leverage, respectively.I'm having a couple of difficulties in this analysis and wanted to see how most members here tackle some of these questions: I have seen some posters on here note that you should underwrite the duplex as an investment property with both units rented, however, I am having a bit of trouble wrapping this around my head, because I am in fact comparing an SFR to an owner-occupied duplex and not other investment properties, how have some of you approached this and underwriting to an NOI?

You could also look into installing low flow shower heads faucet aeraters.

When you consider interest rates being at zero for years, amount of credit in the system, subprime borrowers, fannie and freddie buying 1% down loans again, the US most likely headed for recession and the fed increasing rates into a recession, the safe and secure US looks far more like the "wild west" then Medellin etc., where interest rates are 12% for a mortgage and require 30%+ down and the majority of real estate is paid for in cash.