The best way to start is by surrounding yourself with people who are already doing what you’re trying to do.

Quote from @Vince Scipione: Yes, they are a popular choice where I live and work, however with the ever fluctuating cost of oil heat, many people have swapped over their boilers/furnaces to what is called a "Propane Gun" essentially it is a device that is affixed to the front of the furnace/boiler that injects the propane and ignites it.

Most people assume that house hacking means living in a 2 bedroom 1 bath duplex.

Then I work with a local insurance broker give them a valuation of the property, explain that the property is being rented and by how many people.

I appreciate you listing the steps you took / people you went to in order to fill the gaps.

Starting to get competitive though for investment properties because of that reason you have more and more people entering the market from out of state.

I haven't heard of any, but met with a few people in the twin cities last year.

In my experience, most properties that go to auction end up overpriced so I'd be prepared to attend a LOT in order to get something that worked on paper.When I attended my first market auction with an experienced agent the advice he gave me was to figure out my maximum beforehand and stick to it (Seems obvious but people get caught up in winning).

(The same reason many people (maybe mostly men?)

Another thing, the threads move down the forums rather quickly because it's so busy, so the odds of your post being seen for long by very many people is minimal.