We'd each contribute equal capital into the partnership, but our competitive advantage is that he'll live near our properties, is an extremely skilled contractor, and can thus manage and repair/improve our properties more affordably.

If you’re worried about tenants trying to take advantage of you living next to them just tell them you have a business partner and need to run all decisions by them.

Are there major advantages to be a duplex instead of sing family with an in-law suite? 

I have spent the last 3 months reading and listening to the bigger pockets podcast, I will be purchasing income producing multi family properties and ideally would like to take advantage of the BRRRR method.

I have learned that self management
 is not advantageous to most parking owners.

Do your due diligence when selecting a lender. 

I realized that because I live here in town, I could potentially use new builds to my advantage as follows:1.

One advantage of refinance is you get rid of the mortgage insurance.

I feel like it’s something that doesn’t get taken advantage of nearly enough.

As for reinvesting the capital, I would connect with a property management company and consider reinvesting in a different market to take advantage of current market value and interest rates.