It is simply matter of time when Airbnb is going to eat VRBO's entire lunch.

It's an alligator and it will eat you.

I agree with your idea of staying closer toward the city and eating the higher price.

My first thought was I am going to eat up and spit out in two weeks.

If you have experience doing these renovations then maybe you need not heed this, but if this is your first time doing renovations this could quickly become a multi-year project and turn your duplex into an alligator property (eating up all of your time and money).

IE are you in a area with a lot of snow and such.or deep south with wind hail and bad soil.. or in an area were crime rates are above the normal or better areas of west coast.. all of these things will eat into cash flow if your buying and holding.

Luckily we paid our manager nothing but we still had to eat all the mortgage payments and maintenance without any rental income for 6 months. 

You assigning it to a broker and then the broker goes out and assigns it again will eat up a lot of your spread.

Andrew Johnson That totally make sense...although paying for property management would eat into my profits, I think it would overall be worth it.

I personally don't like leasing machines as the split can eat up any potential profit and sometimes doesn't even cover the added water/sewer bill.