If it were a pure investment property, HOA would be a deal breaker.

At which point I would focus purely on being made whole.

It's much easier to work with deals like this if you're approaching them as a pure investor.

Although we made a little (~$5,500), it was pure stress and we learned never to compromise on certain issues.

In pure accounting practice, ONE journal entry is used for the transaction (call it move-out) regardless of how many line items are required (say damages, past-due & deposit refunds). 

On a purely pre-tax basis my monthly payments to own would be about $5,000 (putting down 20%).

The Final Cost:Purchase $206,000Holding $7000 (Cost over and above our previous rent through August 1 when I rented the basement, includes 3 months when it was vacant)Remodeling $45,000 (only about 10k was contracted work, the rest is pure materials)Hours of my life - Maybe 2000?

I have got the bid on the property with the repairs required, but wanted to check in this forums on how to select the contractor based on the bids, Is it purely based on Price , or ReferralsThis would be the first time i would be working with them @Kyle Gray Thank you for the extensive reply , how do i get involved in the selection of items as the contractor is going to do the selection for us on whats required based on the bid submitted, Please let me know how i can get involved in the selectionThank you @J Scott@James Wise  i will check with some GCsThank you all 

Some are focused purely on networking, some on education and some on selling product or services.

Our buy and hold strategy is purely for income supplementation and to leverage into additional buy and hold strategies.