They say people are constantly coming and going and people are moving things in and out a lot.Tell about a couple minor disturbances etc. 

has anyone had an agent attend a live auction on their behalf while they are out of town?

My wife and I are going in with another couple and are going to be equal partners.  

(we have a couple other rental properties and our primary that need priority)So what would you do. 

A couple properties ago we passed our very frugal freedom number, and decided that my very demanding job as an athletic director was ultimately slowing our progress down in real estate.

You might only be a couple blocks from the nice area, but it is still close enough where the hipsters want to live there because its cool. 

Let me know if you will be in the area and we can meet up.There is also a meetup that happens monthly in the Southern Maine area, usually an evening around 6pm, that you would be welcome to attend.

A couple thoughts:1.

Just quickly looking around the area for recent sales and I see single family homes and a couple duplexes and they have been selling in the $230k-250k range. 

If they're discouraging you from renovating and discouraging you from renting it out, I'd probably want to verify that with a couple other brokers in the area.Also, it's not clear what you mean when you say your mom is letting you just take the house.