It was a personal referral, received a credit at closing for renovations as well How did you finance this deal?

Not for a single airbnb like you are seeking (you and everyone else) but because if you start a BNB or a guest house or a hotel, you can get 40% of your investment back in the form of a tax CREDIT that you can sell for about 90 cents on the dollar. 

We both have good credit but my lender made it seem like there was no getting around putting less than 25% down on an investment property.

Management treats line employees quite poorly and lying is just part of the job.

The main downside is being dependent on the HOA—issues like poor management, rising fees, or unexpected assessments can hurt your investment.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

I have 880 credit score, decent savings, and no other debt except for 300K mortgage on my primary residence (worth $1.5 million).

Caution:  Personal credit card financing is a huge risk and good luck finding 0 percent interest today.

Even more than credit, the more experience and capital you have, the more aggressive a lender is going to be.

To answer your questions here though:Alternative options - I was going to sell all my stocks and etfs, take out a HELOC, and some credit cards to try to shoestring together enough to the deal without a hard money loan.