No more picking out colors.  

If you Google an address, you can find it on Trulia, and then there is a good color coded map of green = good to red = lots of crime.  

The duplex is about 3000sqft total and I'm going with a semi-gloss Behr medium gray color ($29/gal Home Depot), classic white trim.

The floors look like they are refinished and poly'd- did you run into any issues with color blotches from prior damage?

I'm sure I would learn a lot during the process too.

However, on the previous point, I will recommend reading any loan documents with a fine-toothed comb - not a summary of the loan/program, but the actual loan/program documents.There may be additional conditions in the program (e.g., never being allowed to rent it even after 5 years are up, or only being allowed to rent it to low income people even after 5 years, etc.) and you don't want to be at the closing table (or later) and find something you object to.Free money is great, but you may find (as I've found) that it usually comes with some pretty specific conditions.

Try different envelopes, colors, sizes, tweak your message, ect.

We were thinking maybe a shade of grey stain, since that seems to still be the color du jour - but we are quite undecided.  

Paint colors, what people can place on their balconies, trying to keep harmony of the area.

That's worth every penny I spend on them.Some people want to manage their own rentals to save money too.