@Shawn Ward
The condo flip was spectacular! We doubled it as a vacation place for a few years and took our time working on it. We did 95% of the labor ourselves. The HOA was painful at times - one month after taking ownership they raised the dues a hefty amount. The HOA didn't have any issues with our work - they appreciated that we were raising the value of the place. We did get involved in an HOA project and bought a few new windows through assessment for the place.
The difference in our situation was that we bought and sold in a place where the locals either don't have money or interest in doing this type of work and many properties are owned by vacationers who don't want to do work either! There are lots of opportunities in that area.
We bought it out of foreclosure. We sold for close to 3 times our purchase price and profited approximately the purchase price. The buyer turned around and put it up on VRBO and easily makes the annual HOA fees through rental income.
I don't look for any association properties any more. We were happy to not have to worry about the exterior or systems - that would have made the whole project a lot more scary for us given the distance and potential costs of those items. We were lucky to find ourselves a part of a small, laid back association. A larger group with more formal rules would have caused us more headaches!
