Are you planning to invest locally in New York, or are you open to investing out-of-state?

At that time, local jurisdictions may be allowed to require property owners to be owner-occupied. 

This means a great lending attorney, 1st position loans against local properties, and sensible loan-to-value ratios (LTVs).

I bought SFH through turnkey companies out of state, had a few SFH's locally managed by someone else and bought some small mulifamily properties and had a PM there as well. 

Local REI Meetup groups - AskThey are out there, but they are hiding under rocks a lot of times and you have to turn over a lot of rocks to find them.    

If you visit https://www.biggerpockets.com/events, there is a section for "Community Events & Local Meet Ups." 

Educate yourself on the local market, network with other investors and agents, and always have a solid plan in place before making any investments.

He has been working on properties his whole life so he’s a great resource and partner on getting the work done but as this is my first purchase and reno, I am looking for a few suggestions on finishes so I can finish working out my numbers.The house was bought from a local investor who seems to have run out of money and was offloading about 3-5 properties in my area.

If you want to stay local, you might need to start with house hacking a home.

Small town - limited contractors - so a local like him has a major leg up.