Ayer, Billerica, Hudson, Maynard - those are going to be your best bet for cash flow in Middlesex County.

I'm willing to bet you may have to pay some of their demand to ensure this doesn't happen.3.

If you are going to invest in class C I strongly recommend you physically go visit the property and the area with your own two eyes.

I believe the best bet to get a good deal is to target pre-foreclosures with good chunk of equity.

The very basics would be getting your furniture and shopping list together, keyless entry like Schlage (with backup lockbox with physical key very close as well), looking into insurance, local taxes for STRs, and moreAlot of ways to save time and make it easier to self manage with a property management software like Hospitable and data research like AirDNA.

You bet I did.

I bet it looks very amateurish.

If your goal is to offset your mortgage with a house hack then Lowell would be a good bet, but if you're looking for a longer term appreciation play then the areas closer to the city would be better, although the offset from cashflow may be lower than what you're looking for.A good step for you would be to dig into specific areas more as @Lien Vuong noted above.

Best bet is likely (not absolute - everyone's situation is different) is to look at a national lender or broker that has options in lots of states - its a great development versus 20 odd years ago, with technology, internet, places like this - can have access to many more options than before (local broker or lender thats it)

You are betting too much on the refinance portion if you try to BRRRR with hard money.