HOA approval for townhome rental

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I'm in the market for my first rental property and although I was focused on finding a single family home, a competitively priced townhome came on the market in a highly desirable area with a reasonable monthly HOA fee ($118). I thought this could be a good way to get my feet wet in real estate, so I'm in the process of submitting an offer.

The HOA for the community has advised me that I need approval from their board in order to rent the unit out, and there is a 25% rental cap in the community. The HOA informed me they are currently at a 19% rental percentage, and they said I cannot request the rental approval until after I've already purchased the townhome and provided them with a copy of a finalized lease agreement. This seems unreasonable to expect me to purchase a rental property before knowing whether I'm able to rent it out, however I'm new to this so perhaps this is the norm.

I'm curious as to any input or advice the BP community has on this, and I've included the language from the HOA bylaws below.

“Units may not be leased for a term less than 6 months. No more than 25% of units (13) may be leased at one time. Owners must have approval of the Board to lease due to the leasing restrictions.”