The dogs have already begun to do a number on the natural wood floors that the owner just had redone so I can only imagine what this will look like a year from now.

I'm looking into the possibility/cost of adding an additional natural gas meter into my duplex.

Yes you need to put one down and yes you will have some skin in the game.- closing costs including points,  fees of various descriptions, title costs, insurance, and appraisal...- rehab costs, at least until the first milestone. - reserves for cost over-runs and unexpected emergencies- servicing the loan until the property is stabilised or flipped or whatever, once again this might be longer than expected.Best of luck with your future BRRRR empire! 

It is in our nature to want to please people; but don't worry that will go away. 

Protective equity... if you were to default the lender has greater protection, and it's assumed the more skin you have in the deal the more motivated you are to make payments.

I would naturally want to help that person. 

The beauty of messing around with residential property is the favorable loan terms only available to natural persons.

Should anything go wrong, they have no skin in the game and will bail on the deal.

You are going to need skin in the game unless you can find creative solutions like owner financing, friends/relatives happy to take a second lien position or whatever. 

You rented it out for the new tenants to move in after the previous lease naturally expired.