(Although I work in Solon, so it's not as attractive to me as Bedford!)

I ask because I know if a bank has to offers at the same price no inspection contingency would be the more attractive offer so for that reason do a lot of investors exclude it?

There's probably podcasts, blog posts and other articles about how to find deals which are not yet listed.With your work situation, I'd be looking into learning how to attract and engage private lenders.

Both are located in nicer areas of Worcester, and could attract off-campus students or families looking to rent in that area. 

Zillow is a product to attract real estate agents' marketing dollars, not a replacement for up-to-date real estate market information.  

Also keep in mind the intangibles of attracting higher end tenants, increasing your unit value, and having possibly longer residency stays because of the improvements you put in.

We also priced it very agressively to try to attract section 8 tenants.

What type of tenant would the duplex attract?  

I'm guessing the 300+ overcast days a year make solar a less attractive investment.I like your idea of renting the building as multiple units.

There are 1031-specific crowdfunding sites, though not as numerous as the traditional crowdfunding sites (if "traditional" even applies to crowdfunding)...