My father-in-law made a suggestion that we partner together to buy land, develope it into a mature neighborhood (50 year olds and older) and set up an HOA, and sell off a dozen or two houses.

Of course, CA is notorious for bucking that trend, so there may be a reason.

Does anyone use any remote monitoring systems that are really affordable (like a couple bucks/month) that use a cell network and not need a internet connection for tracking temperature of smaller apartment buildings?  

Don't be afraid the spend a few hundred bucks for legal representation, and don't be concerned about any HOA/realtor conspiracies.

This was 3-4 years ago and assuming he has been more mature about money since then and paying all bills as he claims and has money in the bank, I don't think I have an issue here. 2.

I don't have a cash flow but hey even if I put in 100 bucks a month in to the property Im getting a 140k house for 100 bucks a month that some one else is paying the rest for.

Taxes and parking are two items that are frequently overlooked.You have lots of homework to do you might find that you where you get the most bang for the buck is the area to consider.

If they pay you 3 day in advance of to rent due day they would get $50 bucks off (or $20).

The best way is to spend the couple hundred bucks and talk to a cross border accountant to be sure and have a solution tailored to you specifically.What market are you focusing on?

I went and priced the new apartments and they were like 50$ a month under mine, I talked with the realtor and lowered mine to ten bucks below the level of the new complex and they went back to renting.