We actually had three or four other scripted elements that never made the final cut.The crazy thing is that none of this was the original script. 

Landlords forget that a vacant unit has three costs:1.

Currently, the owner lives in the larger one and rents out the three smaller ones. 

My wife and I own three rentals so that makes me an expert at nothing.

I'm looking for tips in three areas:1.

Your cash flow is already negative by $500 with you living in one of the units this would make it negative $1,500 or more  at which point you should ask yourself what the point of house hacking is if you are paying $1,500/ month to live in a 2 bed apartment when you could pay $1,500/month to live in a house and have a separate rental property or two or three that actually cash flow.  

All three were previously in our manager's portfolio with owners who wanted to sell off-market.

As a general rule of thumb, you can buy three MFRs in Plymouth County for the price of one in JP.For specific towns, look at Plymouth, Brockton (west side), Kingston, Marshfield, Wareham, Taunton, Fall River and New Bedford.The big advantage to these locations as opposed to out of state investing is that you can always drive to them and check on condition and whether contracted work is being done properly. 

Also, upon us moving out of the duplex I estimated we could cash flow anywhere from 200-600 per month depending on if I kept a two bedroom or converted it to three.

BACKGROUND: I live in Arizona and own three units in Illinois.