I talked to numerous California investors in real life and phone/Zoom calls who have lost money in far away OOS markets, mostly Midwest markets (e.g. repairs, capital expenses, bad tenants, properties vandalized while under renovation, evicted tenant stole all the appliances, property managers with high fees or overcharging for repairs).

Licensing fees, CE classes, E&O insurance, general business liability insurance, sentrilock/suprakey fees, board association, etcc.

., and in your analysis account for slightly higher PM fees.  

The net number is rent minus mortage PITI, property management fee and HOA fee).

You could buy the meter, have a plumber install, you connect to computer, charge the exact amount of water usage. 

I admittedly have a bias against condos for the following reasons:1) HOAs - both a lack of control over fees and assessments, as well as potential regulation changes2) they don’t appreciate as much3) you have to work a lot harder to differentiate yourself from your neighbors. 

VRBO is completely uncooperative in this.I am contemplating just turning each of these over to an attorney, sue for the chargeback plus legal fees, and let it go.

Initially after management fees, repairs and PMI i was losing about $250 per month.

I hope you reported it to the police, if not, you should file a police report and also install cameras because there's an influx of squatter's taking over people's properties recently. 

I got my license and paid fees for a year then put it on hold.