Just hit 4 years living in a duplex we bought.
Cashflow? We put 20% down (partially via 401k loans, as we were originally told we'd need 5 or 10%, we had that.)
Bought for: 150K. Taxes here are expensive, ~$4500/yr.
PITI payment nowadays is 982. We put some money into the lower unit in 2015 to fix it up some. Rent is 980+pets. So, our rental unit covers PITI. We have to cover water for that unit, but otherwise live rent/mortgage free-finance wise WHEN the unit is occupied. BUT, we bought a place that needs a lot of work over time, so we've been putting cash into the building every year so far. Chimney rebuild this year at 3.2K, 2 years ago did both furnaces for $4.2K, siding projec we'll start next year probably spending 6K, etc.
For us, SFH were going for similar prices as duplexes in teh neighborhood we wanted to be in. So this was a way for us to house hack and spend a LOT less overall, long term. Love that when it's paid for, we'll be cashflowing where we live!
Our inherited tenants moved out after they bought a house themselves. THe next set of tenants were NOT good. We learned a lot. The next tenant (after the fix up in 2015) has been great. :-)
Bottom line. Don't go crazy over trying to find a deal. Make sure it is somewhere you would want to live first and treat the rental income as a bonus. An extra $200 a month of cash flow is not worth your sanity.
Agree with this completely. THere's a lot to get used to as far as noise, shared space, etc. For us, it's well worth it, though.