They have competitive prices, quality products and professional installers available.

Also frankly any place fairly close to Waltham will be the most competitive of the whole range you are looking at so, while a good deal will sell instantly, it will be that much harder to find a deal starting out.I think you are on the right track with the Nashua area.  

What I want to avoid is being in competition with a bunch of new homes. 

Either I need to find them myself or find them from a wholesaler.Any property that is marketed, either on the MLS or Craigslist, is going to generate competition and make it less likely a deal.  

Makes your rental more competitive when tenants comparison shop.Just my 2 cents.

As a competitive real estate investor for over 15 years, I've come to learn that most of my competition will quit at a certain point and as long as my team and I are willing to go beyond where they stopped we will win. 

But hey, the more difficult it is to get the lead the less competition you're going to have!!

THESE LEADS HAVE VERY LITTLE COMPETITION!

I'm hesitant to just tack it into the rent since that would a) make it less market competitive and b) locks me into an assumption of how many people would be living in the unit which has an affect on the water bill.I'm curious for ideas and practices to bill back water (particularly in the Cleveland market) that work well for you.Thanks for any suggestions!

The problem is there is a lot of competition on a site like that.