Combine that with insurance raising rates not just for dropping licensee count, but also to cover increased lawsuit risks.

The equity is actually what you are paying for the property.In this case let's look at the numbers that count,...the current numbers.You have about $500k or more in equity, which is buying you a property that's worth about $700k (I went with the lower PV. 

Account Closed I have had tremendous success using direct mail and mailing the owner of record where the tax bills get mailed to.Generally, property management companies don’t pay the real estate taxes so this gets me right to the owner.Targeting wise, I would just do a zip code filtered by unit count using a service like listsource.  

I made more mistakes on my first investment than I can count.

So after the first year, expect $5592 annual cost on property tax to counted as an expense for a reduction of cash flow in the amount of $5592 per year.3) Your assumption for HOA dues was $1000 per year. 

Also:_________________________________________________________________________Recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

Did the proceeds from the sale count as short term or long term capital gains?

I use $2500 to pay expenses and save what's left in a fund for repairs etc...So I can count on approx 5K/month in gross income. 

My best student  crossed the 1 million mark in net worth and he is in his early 30s!

@Stacey OlsonRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.