My recommendation would be to get approved as a Landlord, contact the director's office and request that an inspection be completed before a tenant is selected (sometimes they will do this as long as you select a tenant within 14 days - which you want anyways), and have an online application and screening resource in place.  

My last deal was an exact wrap at 3.5% granted I had to put $80k down to pull it off, but it’s a great way to keep the train on the tracks.  

There is a cumbersome way to do it on paper forms, but you should not.The only sensible way is to submit your 1099s to the IRS online, however not directly with the IRS.

Beacon you would want to be near the train and it's priced higher than the Catstkills - same with Hudson.

If its a volunteer fire company you may be able to donate the house to them for the purpose of training and get a tax deduction .

I do SMS, cold call, mail, online, wholesalers, etc.

Networking, local meetups, door knocking, mailers, wholesalers, online forums specific to your area of interest.  

I’d love to hear about the crime rates or any other issues (which we cannot guess from the online stats), and how easy or hard it is to find reliable tenants and property management companies.

These are professionals with additional training and a stricter code of ethics.

By working for a larger corporation you are gaining an unfair advantage, by letting them train and develop you (while you are getting paid) and you do real estate on the side.This idea is not from me, read RichDad.