Having to pay over 60c now per stamp can be a little rough when you're sending out thousands of letters.

Even if I were found guilty, the cost would be in the thousands, not in the millions.

I'm not sure where you got your information but it's not into the thousands.

Instead of cash-flow you're creating value and saving thousands on taxes if you choice to sell. 

Another was a only few thousand dollars. 

CPA from San Diego won't be cheap for sure and i am not sure that CPA needs to be local to provide great service even though i have total 4 units(3rental+1primary) i feel its still not complicated and don't want to spend couple of thousand $ to use local CPA service.

If you don't catch it right away, the cabinet is ruined.  

And yet, I continue to run into folks being taken for thousands of dollars at a time!

Even if you don't need that rental income, make sure you are using a lender that allows it to be used.And if you dump thousands of dollars into a property to improve the value....but that lender isn't using the ARV...then why even use them?  

If the HOA is causing that much of a headache then I would not let that ruin your experience in real estate investing.