New BP Member in New Bedford, MA

[Nicholas D.]

Hello all,

My name is Nicholas, I'm 27 years old and currently reside in the New Bedford area of MA (South Coast region). I'm a full-time Firefighter Paramedic, but have been slowly investing into Real estate as well on my time off. I currently own 2 multifamily units. The first is a large 3 family 1400/SF units 4/1 that does pretty well with roughly $1,100 cash flow monthly. The other I purchased about 4 months ago and is a 4 family with 7 garage bays. I did pretty well on this unit, unfortunately had some renovations that became more extensive than anticipated, but when all is said and done will be looking at roughly $1,700 cashflow monthly. 

I am looking to expand much quicker and consider my strategy of choice to be buy and hold. For my next property I'm looking to cash purchase + Reno + Refi +Hold. I'm curious if there is anyone around my area of MA that is into this same strategy? I've been looking at possible SFH (for quicker turnarounds and easier maintenance as well as management), either HUDs or other distressed properties, but with my analysis have been seeing that the cashflow is extremely minimal. It seems tough to get into a 1000-1500 SF property for under 150$ and even then would not be turn key and possible cashflow is limited to 200-300$ tops without really pushing the rent prices high. IMO I just would not want to go through the hassle for 200$/monthly, but a lot of the multifamily units that I have seen on MLS lately have been only turning a good profit if they are in really rough areas and would require high turnover rates and high maintenance/management/ rent chasing, this is the whole reason I began to analyze SFH to see if with smaller profits, but easier management, it would work out. I am having trouble finding anything.

Anyone else around this area experiencing the same issues? Or does anyone have any insight/advice?