If you are looking for groups I suggest the Black Diamond and NERIA, they both meet in your area.

If you are looking at rental property in Worcester you really want to check out the Black Diamond meeting in Worcester.  

Yes the REO inventory is very thin and competition for those is high, as you've seen.I'd recommend getting some practice talking to owners/sellers directly; you'll have to do it sooner or later anyway, and the sooner the better IMO.For example, try "driving for dollars" which means driving (or biking or walking) around a neighborhood near you and calling on For Rent signs to ask if the owner might want to sell instead, or talking to people in the neighborhood about any vacant/derelict houses you see.You might also attend a local real estate investor group such as RIREIG in RI or Black Diamond in Worcestor/Waltham.

1475 Mcpherson Ave SE Atlanta, GA 30316This diamond in the rough is located in the East Atlanta Village neighborhood.

I plan on attending some of the black diamond events held by @Ann Bellamy in the coming weeks/months, @Mike LaCava 's meetup this Thursday and very interested in @Justin Silverio 's approach to REI while working a full time job and taking time out for your family.Once I have a little more time on my hand, I have a goal of documenting my first deals and forward through the use of video blogs, to post on BP.  

On Today/Tuesday this months Black Diamond meeting meeting is taking place in Waltham.  

If it is a true diamond in the rough and you feel confident you can do the project yourself with out to much risk to you, then hell yes.

Some easy ones for you is the Black Diamond event in Waltham (2nd location in Worcester as well) and the Boston Area REIA in Medford.

I find it so hard to find good buys through short sales...so many realtors in my market are flipping homes right now but there's still a huge market for it based on the lack of inventory and the quality of homes for sale.So again, what MLS reports and data did you run to find your target neighborhood and such a great diamond in the ruff.By the way, the that incentive on forgoing commission to motivate the listing...genius

Ones that you should look into are the NERIEA in Chelmsford, the Black Diamond events in Waltham (2nd location in Worcester), the Boston AREIA in Medford, a quarterly meetup in Woburn with a heavy BP theme (next one in June) and a couple of meetings on the North Shore.