Keep the message simple and add more information as you continue to send.

My advisor recommends month to month for the simple fact, the process of eviction is quicker.

At a minimum, a home usually must pass a 4-point inspection to qualify for insurance (and thus financing), so if a house needs something as simple as a new roof or a new a/c or furnace (which is very often the case with REOs), it kills the deal for conventional, FHA, or VA financing. 

If that was the case then the duplex would be better, on paper any way, but then on the other side the duplex is spreading your risk over only two units so if you loose a tenant that is half of your income, where as in a quad when you lose a tenant its only 25% of your income.

I like simple.

Andrew Nelson It's a fairly simple process in Ohio.

Cap rate is simple.  

Sometimes all the papers are signed late in the evening too late to record and I just run to the registry first thing in the am.Last purchase closing that I did, everything was signed by 10 am but the mortgage company did not wire in the funds until noon.

Did she say so or did you already get paper work?

You may consider starting out by doing some hard money loans to local flippers, or selling some of your units with seller financing to carry the paper.