it's a nice, expensive place to live but tougher to house hack unless you buy a big house and rent out individual rooms.)also, as @Jonathan Greene alluded to, the more you're willing to sacrifice, the better it will work. 

Most my clients tend to be out of state, high income individuals that are looking for a great return and not looking to spend 200 hrs on the project themselves.  

NEVER use a friend.

I invest in MA, a very tenant friendly state.

However, this is a totally new space to me- Any advice for how to go about looking for a lawyer who works with individual investors and won't break the bank?

I have a close friend who does them for me but she can only do one at a time.

Outside of real estate, I enjoy spending time with family and friends and convincing myself I am getting better at golf each year! 

Each bedroom has it's own individual keypad / lock.Padsplit has data on occupancy per zipcode through their host portal.

Save up some money, buy your first few properties organically and once there's experience and the start of a balance sheet go out and raise money from friends and family if you are still interested in the business. 

Also, the agent as Rene said should be a good investor friendly agent too.