Goal would be to reduce manual work and time intensive tasks2.

My two cents summarize is that you can make some nice cash, especially for the northeast, but at the same time the units will be management intensive and given the landlord / tenant laws of MA, one troublesome tenant could wipe out many month's / year(s) of profit.

And as long as you work out the % ownership correctly they'll be able to complete their 1031 exchange successfully

Main question i'd ask is how much time do you have. as stated above, LTR is less time intensive but for your first deal, you usually will cashflow better on MTR.

Workout today is going to be intense!

Do you think the cost of the build will work out as you expect?

After a solid 6 month intensive full rehab and pulling all the cash invested out I like to tell my wife 'Hey look at all the free passive income we have!'

If you have not then going from never doing this to managing a more management-intensive strategy like co-living may not be a good idea.

From there it's simply showing up, consistently, persistently, and no matter how feel showing up and putting in the work with intensity like youre there to get things done. 

Like I said- even if it doesn't work out Tuscaloosa seems like a no brainer for appreciation, LTR and probably MTR as well.