If there's anyone else from my neck of the woods, I'm wide open to learning how to navigate this niche.

Sorry you are dealing with that, it sounds awful.My guess is most attorneys are going to charge hourly on something like this unless you are suing the HOA for damages in which case they may take a contingency fee.

I have a Bachelors of Arts in legal studies from CWU.

If you’re right and this tenant would have passed their screening.

However, if I had started off with a house hack, I could have lower my monthly mortgage tremendously which would have helped me build up my savings at a much quicker pace than I had.

This is why I love real estate.

What are your tips on finding and evaluating areas to purchase?

I expect you'll get great feedback on this post. i'll address one metric that we use to use but we have thrown it out. 

Does anyone have a service or company they'd recommend for this?

Every PM I've met has at least several bad reviews, but I'm hoping this helps.