Like much of what @Caroline Gerardo and @Andrew Postell said, your options are going to be dictated by loan terms (how title is held and by whom).So find a local lender in the market where you intend to buy and be open with the lender.  

I won't allow tenants to treat me that way and I certainly won't let them dictate when I can enter my property.

I think it's a rather challenging, but a very important step if you're going to buy out of state, because most of your returns will be dictated by the macro-economic conditions of the market you're buying in.

So a lot of the debate here is what amounts of money you are investing with dictates to an extent the type of assets you can own and the areas you can own them in.Now you might could pull funds together with others and then buy something larger and a higher quality property and area that you might not be able to afford on your own etc.

Believe it or not, how you live your life according to the importance of the 5 currencies will dictate your success...no matter how you define success. 

In your homeowners policy there is a percentage that dictates what you are allowed to spend annually on a secondary placement if needed. 

So they dictate the rent or do I have the choice to tell them what the rent will be?

Your HOA docs may well dictate who is "responsible".

The fee is minor, but the restrictions around percentages that can have STR in any neighborhood will dictate your purchase.

Tax lien states where you purchase the lien typically do not run into the 10's of thousands but rather are dictated by the amount of property tax owed, typically less than a few grand.