Like the others said, it is a buyers' market. I also recommend a 3 decker type of situation. You can then have people paying you rent and this can pay your mortgage.
Renting out to tennents isn't as easy or straitforward as it sounds. My father owned two rental properties, that he since has sold due to laws reguarding renting/screwing landloards. One tennent, after a few months refused to pay rent. My father sent repeated notices and phone calls of needing to pay the rent, which were ignored. Finally, after 3 months, my father went through all the proper procedures to evict the man. The man appealed the eviction in court, and won. Not only did my father now have to allow this man to live in the apartment, rent free, but he also had to pay all the man's court and lawyer fees for the appeal. I wish I could say this was an isolated incident, but it happened with two more tennents and my father (now thousands in the red with rentalsO decided to sell both properties. The new owners have had similar problems, one with the tennent described above.
Massachusetts laws do not protect your property rights...
-If you publicly advertise an a dwelling for rent, you cannot deny anyone for any reason. That means pedophiles, drug dealers, rapists etc.
-Failure to pay rent is NOT grounds for eviction and all court costs are the burden of the landlord.
-Tennents can refuse to pay rent for damages to the property, even if they caused them. One renter broke (shattered) the toilet. The time it took to get a replacement and get it installed was ~24hrs from the time my father was notified. The renter refused to pay rent for the month, citing unsatisfactory living conditions and won. How does one shatter a toilet?
-You can be held responsible for crimes/acts of violence committed on your property, even if it's by a renter you had objections about allowing to live there.
-And God forbid a renter or their guest slips on the floor, falls down the stairs or burns themself on the stove. They will own the house after that.
I have personally witnessed each of the above with rental properties my father owned, and after one of them was sold. It seems like a good idea on paper, but once you announce a "room for rent" you forfeit almost all of your rights to that property.