My current job allows me to maintain a decent lifestyle and save, however I only have 3.5 yrs left on the contract.

From my experience clients are very rewarding experiences, as you get a chance to bring someone else's dreams come to life, personally I love to take them through the process of a full renovation, everything from rendering to build, however, if you are not built with the proper infrastructure it is incredibly time consuming and administratively intensive.

I am fortunate that duplexes, specifically "shotgun doubles", are a very common architectural style in my city. 

It was based on real life situations and you had to chose the answer that solved the situation so you had to know the concepts in order to know which answer to choose.  

Some of the language he has quoted back to me is disturbing but also clearly not conducive to any quality of life for him.

I'm sorry that life has thrown you these curve balls right now and I'm glad you're here looking to make an improvement on it. 

I will be meeting with a lawyer tomorrow to discuss LLC's, tax benefits, and how to make the CPA's life a little easier with the bank accounts and credit cards.  

I know some other investors who struggle because they changed their lifestyle as soon as they buy 1, 2, 3, 4 properties.

I cant imagine for the life of me what motivation you think they have?

Just like everything else in life, it all depends on the person (and the market segment) you're dealing with.