The high property taxes takes out most of the profits. 

The public good is the saving of wear, tear, and expense on our first responders.

When you add that: "The downpayment and closing costs would be one large hurdle"; I can't tell if you can only afford to do this once (thus tying up whatever you have saved) or multiple times.  

Taxes 10k HOA is 9k The current owner never did short-term rentals.

I would  show you purchase strategies, real estate monetization, rent roll leveraging, portfolio margining and asset protection/deep tax deductions  

I'm assuming you are arriving at your cash flow number by applying Gross income - cap ex, maintenance, utilities, vacancy, tax, insurance, mgt, landscape/snow & Debt service?

I predict that the substantial home price cost savings and greater control they enable the buyer to have will make them grow in popularity.

To make a long story short, for one property you are not going to save $ in the long run and realize materials can take 6-16 weeks to arrive. 

Some private lenders like the one I work with doesn't require appraisals on fix and flip/new construction loans and also doesn't require tax returns/W2s.

Do I just have to go by the actual numbers like revenue from last owner and taxes?