The bank in New York I bought them from uses the same property management company for all the houses I bought. 

If you are going to invest locally I would recommend house hacking.

I'm looking at jumping into my first house flip.

Remodeled every room in the house.

A friend suggested setting the high school rating above 7 in the Redfin search engine, along with other filters, for my house search.

The houses are really affordable.

Next, I plan to house hack my my triplex.

You're house rich and cash poor.

The second agent helped me buy the house originally.

You will receive most if not all your benefit in year 1.Year 1 is where you will spend money furnishing the house and potentially taking bonus depreciation via cost segregation study.Year 2 and onwards, assuming you got a performing asset is where things will reverse tax wise and you will likely be reporting positive taxable income.