I work here in Janesville/ Beloit and the market has grown substantially.

- The $5k-$10k properties are the properties that are the source of most of the Detroit Horror Stories- A few home grown locals, may find success with these - yet to witness an low experience or non local be successful with these- Have seen 100s of OOS and first time investors have lots of success with the $60-$110k propertiesMetro Detroit has arguably some of the best investing in the nation.

Having grown up on the North Shore when you say you want to invest " in the Boston Market, and towns/neighborhoods within a few train stops from downtown."

I too have grown from bigger pockets knowledge!

I have read more in the last 10 months than i have my entire life and I have grown exponentially from that coupled with the knowledge gained from the BP community.

However, if the house is truly vacant, would the HOA be able to enforce the appearance standards in order to keep the house looking nice, or would the typical distressed property signs start showing up, I.e. over grown vegetation, newspapers piling up, etc.?

The house could also need a new roof in the first 5 years (with a couple of other "minor" issues) and has not grown in value that much over time (2-3% annually).

You probably won't be able to do 1031 exchanges from a syndication model, but even paying the tax on the capital gains, your $120K investment for each deal should have grown by 25-50%, meaning that when you reinvest that appreciation, you will receive more income, assuming that same 8% and growing annual return.Of course, this assumes that everything goes right in every deal, which is a big assumption.  

Or is this a past marriage and the kids are grown?

However the market that I'm looking to invest in is where I have grown up.