I wanted somewhere close to Nor Cal but much more friendly tenant/landlord laws, 4th lowest property taxes in the Nation, rent growth, job growth, population growth, strong appreciation, limited land, close to Lake Tahoe, etc. 

But how for newbies like me with no portfolio or track records I spent most of my money on education  now I'm between jobs so it's kind of hard for me to do both.

There are many great neighborhoods that offer a consistent predictable ROI.

Every system you try will have flaws, or you may salivate over a feature that appears in other software.Some familiar names are mentioned frequently: Stessa, Apartments.com, RentRedi, TenantCloud, Innago, RentManager, Avail, Rentec Direct, Doorloop, etc.I recommend conducting thorough research on each app online to understand their offerings, pricing, etc.

And you see so many on BP that cant wait to quit their jobs.. :)  

Another option is to get a quote so you at least have an idea....and if something happens in the next 12 months for example, and you are okay with the quote, you can just reach out to the person to do the job he/she quoted.

As an investor focused buyer's broker I spend the majority of my time helping buyer(s) assess properties both before and after their offer is accepted. 

I'm not familiar with what Cambridge might offer, but finding something without MI would only be small/local banks or credit unions like that with some portfolio product. 

We set the price based on our original assumptions but the offers we received were all well below what we needed. 

Websites like Zillow, Realtor.com, and Redfin offer valuable insights into market trends, median prices, rent estimates, and historical price data.