Some kinds of auctions allow you similar protections as a traditional sale.

I email all my documents as pdfs with password protection, then I text the passwords to the person receiving them. 

If you haven’t done so already, consider protecting these assets under a legal structure, such as an LLC or trust, to ensure they are secure.

-Legal Protection: A real estate attorney should draft the seller financing agreement to make sure your interests are protected.Final ThoughtsThis might be a pretty awesome first project if you can work out some sort of low-down, seller-financed deal with sweet terms.

I feel like a condo would allow me to: 1) Get experience and my foot in the door with little capital.2) Protect me from getting wiped out by an unknown capex expense.3) Potentially house hack.4) Not feel bad about burning money on rent. 

This FLA build new rentals got WAAAY over sold and huge FOMO that got buyers to lose their wits about how to protect their money..

There are ways to mitigate the costs and protect yourself to the extent possible.

I probably won't withdraw it, so the long-term tax savings and asset protections are appealing.Anything I am misunderstanding or not considering?

A well written management contract should clearly spell out what is expected of both the PMC and the owner, to PROTECT both and avoid misunderstandings.

And I wonder if CCR or HOA can restrict these to protect the values of those homes ?