(Thinking I’ll have a huge advantage knowing the area inside & out, and having connections in the area for agents, a good prop manager & family contractor)2) Find a small multifamily in San Diego county to house hack that keeps my personal living expense under $500 but ideally tenant rent would cover the whole mortgage.

I hopefully will be able to garner cash purchases to help gain a minor advantage over other buyers.

It is hard to find those properties (and basicilly impossible on MLS/Zillow) in Boston and other 'high end markets" there are other advantages to buying properties (MF or SF) in a market like Boston, but just looking for cashflow it is probably not the best option. 

Hey allA lot of my clients speak really highly of Advantage Property Management.

How can I use to this to my advantage??

It sounds like you would have a distinct advantage as you would be the property manager. 

We pulled a list of non-owner occupiers in Gardner & cold called through the list; we got the Seller on board and referred him to an experienced short sale broker that negotiated the sale between us.Value adds: we expect to take advantage of accelerated depreciation.

What other advantage will I have beside commission?

They mentioned this because they want to take advantage of the lower rent in the area (similar property will rent for $500 less now vs. pre covid when they signed their lease in Jan 2020).

They mentioned this because they want to take advantage of the lower rent in the area (similar property will rent for $500 less now vs. pre covid when they signed their lease in Jan 2020).