When you draw from the equity, you are "borrowing" it from the bank and have to pay interest.If you borrow against the equity at 7% interest and then loan it out at 15% interest, you are earning a positive 8%. 

have it go to a month to month for next sixty days then renew the lease at the higher term after that. 

More then willing to share what we have learnt with anyone who wants to chat

The reason I say this is that no matter what your remodel if you are doing a lot of the work yourself (way to max out equity growth) then maybe look for an even larger remodel than you had thought about? 

Something is missing...if there isn't a Board and the HOA (or I assume more likely a COA) is newly formed then why isn't the developer still in control of the HOA?

Many of the investors i work with start buying in their own name and then move the investments to an LLc after you acquire a few. 

I would then work to renovate the bad unit as quickly as possible.  

Find someone you know, like, and trust, then partner with them on a deal.This doesn't have to be an existing investor.

If you have a competitive advantage that you can bring to your co-hosting/managing, then I would recommend looking for owners with properties that mesh well with your target resident.For example, if you are an active duty military servicemember with unique insight into what a servicemember is looking for, lean into that.

You are VERY easily able to open accounts remotely by just uploading your EIN doc and then once your biz account is open you can open additional accounts for things like holding your security deposits, reserves, etc.