Since you will be living next to them this is even more important and can make a great investment feel like a nightmare if you get a particularly bad tenant. 6.

To start, the numbers:3 bedroom, 1.5 bath 1700 sq foot brick SFH with bonus room.Purchase Price: $59kAppraisal: $105k as is with estimated $124k after rehab.Renovation budget: $20k.Renovations include: new flooring in bonus room, kitchen and baths. total renovation of bathrooms, new cabinets, crown molding (to cover bad drywall job by previous owner), buff hard woods, paint exterior, paint interior, remove awning, remove side door and seal up, fix low spot in kitchen floor, and remove the non-permitted fire place.Estimated Rent: Initially I budgeted $950 per month based on another rental I own in a similar location, but  two houses on the same block were recently rented for $1200+.

There has been a dramatic increase in listings, but if you keep your rental nice and kind of unique/stylish, it's likely not a bad investment idea.The city/region has a major issue right now regarding hotel/short-term rental availability.

My hope is that this issue is a one time thing and maybe I just got an inspector who was having a really bad day.

Sounds like you can't golf year round because the weather is too bad...).  

ha.Tenants said they weren't home, and a neighbor had called the fire department and put it out.Tenant sent pictures, and for a fire, that damage was not too bad, damaged some vinyl siding etc.So, obviously since the tenant was not there, I am thinking it must of been some electrical issue.

I realize why contractors have such a bad name.

Sometimes no credit is better than bad credit, why the low scores? 

Tieing up the property without the means to perform is bad faith in my opinion.

If anyone is familiar with massachusetts, the areas vary widely- cape cod, new bedford, taunton, south shore, and of course boston itself (out of my league d/t price) are all much different in price/rent ratio, schools, crime, etc... what are the things that matter most to you and influence your decisions when looking into different markets?