I'm in the Norwood area (with 3 commuter rail stops on the Franklin T Line) and $5-6 might buy you a smaller/older multi with 2-3 units.I would highly recommend you explore the Franklin area (Also on the Franklin T Line) as property prices are lower, there is a bustling down town, there is a growing college and there are is a large office park.

There no reason to wait any time or have any “whichever is lower” rule come into play.

There are lower split brokerages that you can pay less $500 a transaction but they teach you nothing and just check the paper work at the end.

Nothing lowers the property value more than environmental cleanup and advertising it is not going to help.Just my 2 cents.

What you need to do now is set screening standards and write them down (make sure they don't discriminate). your standards should include things such as credit score minimum, income requirements, occupancy maximums (you have a legal limit, but you can set a lower limit if desired), as well as some rules such as: no prior evictions, no felonies, etc.

A few old tenants which isn't bad but has some lower quality tenants with ugly ran down homes/trash.

Do the math again (make sure to shop around for a bank with lower fees) and see if there is a solution to increases the value of it in a short time, so you can refinance it later after get a new appraisal after  rehabe....No deal is batter than a bad deal which will stress you out and not worthy of the time and $.  

This may work in your market or it may need to be slightly higher or lower.   

It's lower risk and you will learn a lot more.

Extended vacancies, higher turnover, lower quality tenant pool, etc.