Legally, not aware of any issues, but check your state & local statutes.NOTE: To avoid Fair Housing lawsuits, you will have to enforce 100% of the time.Other considerations:1) SHOWINGS: you can prescreen for improved safety.

Areas to prioritize / avoid for a first duplex in Atlanta (Tenant quality + Rent demand)2.

Any deal types you’re actively avoiding lately?

It was designed to avoid "lien fracturing" where different investors own different years tax liens on the same property. 

They are avoiding vertical drift, pricing conservatively, and focusing on active asset management.

Just make sure it already passed HQS inspection to avoid repair headaches.

You still get the low cost per door, you still get diversification of rent inflows, you avoid single family home class B-C properties, and you benefit from having all your units in one place.Also consider if you were to occupy one of the units in a multifamily in California, you'd be able to benefit from owner-occupied low down payments.

This will help you avoid some common beginner mistakes.For small multifamily, the best first step is to get hands-on experience.

Don’t chase cheaper prices without strong rent-to-price ratios and landlord-friendly laws.Fourth, with $150–200k liquid, you have optionality.You could:– Keep current home as primary– Buy a duplex/triplex with VA and house hack– Or use capital to acquire a small MFH that actually cash flowsHouse hacking in NoVA is tough because purchase prices are high relative to rent.Given your early retirement goal (not scaling huge), I’d focus on:– Preserving the paid-off asset– Avoiding over-leverage during income transition– Buying only if the next property clearly improves cash flow or lifestyleYou don’t need to “do something” just because you can.

You'll meet a bunch of people there that'll help you get into the right loans, share mistakes they've made to help you avoid those same mistakes and more.