The townhouse is a short drive to the future Raiders practice facility and supposedly the site of various new construction projects (malls, high rise condos, etc.).  3. 

I think we’ll credit $5 as it’s more expensive for us to actually drive out there and do it for them.

There's a lot of factors to consider in deciding between renting and buying. 

It has since climbed to $4,000 - $5,000 per month in STR rents and we decided to keep in online as STR through the summer of 2019 to see how it does.We've only been doing the STR's for about 9 months but have earned Superhost status and have about 40 5-star reviews, so that is helping to drive interest.

Bandit Signs, Craigslist ads, Driving for dollars, Cold calling, searching on the MLS, and direct mail.

You do not have an expense for management (I assume you are self managing)  Also you do not have electric, water, or gas bills factored in. 

Would prefer the first couple deals be within a 3 hour drive of Boston if possible, but beyond that I'm open to working out of state to find the best cash flow.   

This depends on several factors.

It was pretty far away and I didn't want to make my realtor drive even further than I had to just to look for 5 min.

I believe for your first investment property you should look into using the Master Lease Option method, it has the least amount of risks as there is no down payment and and you can essentially "test drive" the property before deciding whether or not to buy it.