Its tough to start out in this area at this time with the prices around the Medford area, but there are still some opportunities looking a little further out in the areas such as Malden and Everett but it is also not bad to look further towards anything close to public transportation into the city.

Should CAM should be treated as something outside of the normal PM fee? 

  - Treat contractors, lenders, agents, title folks, etc with respect and reward good work with referrals and continued business. 

Not helpful but if you have bad areas maybe you want to convert rooms over time.As far as windows go - there was a HUD grant out there for window replacement in older homes. 

It was a good indicator of how they treat people and provide service.

Now, it seems that the condo was a bad idea because of the HOAs, and we want to get out.

I need a 1031 replacement property badly.  

You’ve gotta take the good with the bad and see the silver lining in everything.

I have seen properties with bad language in the lease and the existing tenant, essentially a train wreck waiting to happen, that i have passed on buying - life is too short to take on known problems. 

That's too bad that you moved before using the $500K exemptionbut with the trade war that started in 2018,you might want to sell and stay in cash...