Most of the time a condo/townhome won't be the right fit due to condo fees, hoa fees, etc that make it more costly for the ownership but also more management intensive.

Note the property has an HOA. 

Thanks for all the feedback thus far.One piece of information that impacts a lot of this - this is a condo in a larger building and the HOA doesn't allow leases under 1 year including MTM so we can't implement that strategy but keeping leases to a year makes sense.

Would your HOA allow it?

If you could find a duplex property (or a single family house that could be turned into a duplex--check any HOA restrictions first), or a "fixer upper" to live in, that could be a better use of the equity you have in the rental house.If you run the numbers and decide it makes sense to sell the rental house (check with your accountant, figure out closing costs to selling and buying) then you'll possibly have more money to put towards a primary residence.You may want to check the neighborhoods that fall in the school district you want to stay in and look in "under appreciated" areas...maybe not the A class neighborhoods, but ones that have potential of becoming "improved".While I understand your desire to stay in a particular school district, it's not the end of the world to consider other districts if they will allow you to build real estate/family wealth that will put your entire family tree in a better position."

Hi folks, with Silicon Valley's push to try and automate traditional MFH property management, I'm curious if there's any providers you've heard of or tried that are also attacking the HOA/COA space as well? 

@Srinath GopinathanI don't have an exact answer for you - but would guess that it is because the the covenants and bylaws spell out what the separations are between what the HOA is responsible for, as well as what the condo owner is responsible for.  

I pay $1075/mo for mortgage, insurance and HOA.

On the expense side, we still have expensive money, expensive insurance, and growing HOA fees (if any).

-"notice of assessment lien"  I think this is for not paying the HOA (He claims he did pay the HOA) about 3k-"transcript of judgement"  It looks like he owes a credit union 16kFor what it is worth, he has hired a lawyer to try to get out of his debts.Are the following assumptions correct?