We are based in NY, but we do have clients throughout the country.

Best to consult your CPA for the most relevant advice based on your state's regulations and tax implications.

I thought I was going to own a few dozen single family properties before moving on to multi but after 3 I bought a 14 unit and have never looked back going bigger and bigger on every deal. if im not mistaken everything is already baked into that 775k except closing costs. and construction should take 6months tops. land is included (1acre) but if i had my own land builder said they'd take 65k off the price so 710k. yeah im just thinking whats best way to move forward. my first deal doesnt need to be perfect just want to build a nice base to build from

I will not have to avoid many areas but a few based on crime.

It all depends upon the total cost of construction, based on that your monthly fixed cost/mortgage will come into picture.You cannot rent too far from market rate, essentially you should have some spread between mortgage(construction cost) and rent to cover for cashflow, vacancy etc.I would suggest you to keep the selling it out as your second exit strategy if renting is your first one. in that case your construction cost + selling cost cannot be more than market price of new construction.You can also try to reach out to developers to give them a piece of the pie but then you will have to sell for sure.

I already have income and expense tracking templates but everything is based on either purchase prices for comparison reasons or record keeping.

Do the math to find out what their usage was and bill them based on that.

Check out BP Podcasts: https://www.biggerpockets.com/podcast Best of luck on your REI journey.

Here are the numbers (rounded up):- Original purchase price ~ $180K- Current value ~$230K- Remaining balance ~ $140K- Mortgage payment + HOA ~ $1,300- Current rent = $1,700To calculate ROI at the current time should I base it on the initial investment amount (downpayment) or the current equity position?

I feel that after listening to the BP podcasts for that past few months that I am convinced I would certainly have more control over the return on investment by purchasing the duplex.