I will consult with a lawyer before I do take action.1. 

The neighbor (also a lawyer if that makes a difference) likes to let them run loose in his (and my) front yard.

This ends up working out as an advantage to careful buyers, however, it also ends up wasting quite a bit of everyone’s time.One thing I never quite understood was that everyone seemed adamant that the commercial sale should go through a lawyer versus an escrow company.

Is it really necessary to send out high priced lawyers to stonewall clients?

I like the idea of not using and agent and instead learning to do the purchase contract yourself with a local lawyer.

Speak to a real estate lawyer ASAP!

I am in NJ and we use lawyers to close on real estate, unlike places like Fl.

You can find reliable lease agreement templates through legal platforms like Rocket Lawyer or LawDepot.

One month later, lawyer for HOA wrote me a letter saying they made a mistake in computing the special assessments and $62K more is owed.

A closing / title company can handle the transaction but may want to get a lawyer to draft the documents.Assuming you are buying in your name and not a LLC - if a LLC then there would need to be additional docs like a authorization for LLC to borrow $ etc