It seems that your association property manager is lacking.Normally what a CAM (community association manager) does (and there is some variety to di depending on the agreed role) is run the day to day affairs for the board while the board makes decision on reserves and budgets, choosing a vendor after getting several bids, etc... 

Make sure you're performing credit checks, background checks, verifying income (calling employers and even checking bank statement if you need to), and calling former landlords to inquire about/confirm their habits as a tenant (cleanliness, respect for neighbors, paying rent on time, etc.).If you don't think you're capable of this, definitely find a good property manager!

Since we were discussing bank statements, most lenders will want to see the ability to repay (in additional to having paid on time) and usually a minimum of 3-6-12 months of equivalent mortgage payments in reserves.

My dilemma is this: I would ideally like to wait until I have emergency cash reserves to cover 6 months of mortgage payments for all 3 properties.

Now that you are behind the bank has to put this as a liability on their books and have $400k cash set asideBanks only require 10% reserves typically so that $400k is stopping them from lending approx 3.6M in loans 3.6M at 7% is a big number and will lose a lot more from this than $10-$20k on your loan.

Transferring reservations is clunky.

Operating costs are known and everything is new, so reserve levels are usually tiny as there is a long time to build them up before they need to be tapped. 

Purchase price: $443,000 Cash invested: $60,000 I've included the mortgage, a 5% rental vacancy rate, and a 5% capex reserve.

While the market in Denver seems to be solid, and everything I find in my research seems to confirm that, I'm unsure of what the rental market is like and for what demographics (family, students, traveling nurses).

Read the lease to find out how much notice you need to give that you are moving out at the end of the lease and give them written notice (ie send a letter or email and ask them to confirm they have received it).