My current plan is to pay off mortgage + interest as soon as possible by adding extra principle. 

Here in Phoenix, several very close friends who shared details with me went BK because tenants basically stopped paying and they had leveraged all the properties.

that's basically all on you. 

Basically, if they wanted to set up an air mattress and bring a bag with clothes, toiletries, etc that is fine but not setting up as a permanent residence.The advantage to this is that you never have to worry about having to evict them if they don't leave.

At some point, the biggest learning jump comes from underwriting real deals and talking to lenders, agents, and property managers.For a duplex or triplex house hack, I’d focus less on “financial freedom” narratives and more on execution basics: conservative underwriting, realistic rehab/maintenance assumptions, and making sure the numbers work even if things don’t go perfectly.The goal of the first deal isn’t optimization, it’s getting through one full cycle cleanly so you can repeat it with confidence.Best of luck!

My suggestion would be 2 basic things. 

I've purchased a couple this way (basically BRRRRs with no reno) but it required me to close with either cash or private money and then refi. 

Having that low entry price point, a fantastic interest rate, and growth in value shows that, even with the unexpected, your investment was solid on the basics.

Once you get a piece of property under contract, then you're outsourcing all of the entitlement work to experts and basically managing that part.  

The issue I'm running into is the NC law that says you basically cant DIY anything that you plan to rent.