I recently decided to focus on getting more active and hope it will help me move forward on my RE journey.

My partners and I started in smaller cities and towns (Waterloo, Edmonton, Hamilton), but we've been consolidating our efforts in Toronto over the past 5-7 years.There is a trade-off between cash flow returns and equity growth and when I started investing in the early 2000's, I was solely focused on cash flow and cap rates.

Our primary focus right now is paying down debt, both personal and business.  

But I have no problem in telling someone to focus in another market depending on their investment model & goals they're trying to achieve.

What to focus on renovation wise when moving in, and 3. any other general advice on how to do this successfully.

Being that I live in CT, but am just a few minutes from the Mass border, do you think I should be focusing on one state over the other? 

@Ilan Friedman I would focus on finding a good team here in the area.

On the other hand, if I am already focusing on this property in regards to managing its renovation, why not just tack self-placement on the tail-end? 

We know it is important to focus on one or two things rather than trying to do everything so we would be interested to know other members experiences with our initial plan. 

I know this, I work with one guy that watches how many home cooked meals his landlord makes, how many visitors he has which he prepare meals for.