I understand that the FHA has a great loan program with low interest rates and low down payment, plus an owner-occupancy requirement.

Which is good information to have, but like you suggest, maybe getting that info BEFORE we start working together would be best.The hidden fees thing: you're absolutely correct, no business regardless of occupation is going to tell you those.

@Meenakshisundaram Ramaswamy You start out by trying to contact the current occupant to find out their intentions.

So a little different post but my family and I will likely relocate from SLC UT to the Knoxville area this summer and we need a place to live.We're looking for any recommendations for real estate agents or flippers wi...

, but we have not seen a meaningful uptick in owners-occupant buyers as of yet. 

The HOA wishes to "preserve" their property value by social engineering to force homeownership, but the opposite comes to pass - most qualified owner occupants have more expensive homes, and folks who want to occupy those units are not qualified to own.  

Is this a buy and hold, flip to owner occupant, or flip to investor?

We are always looking for people to drive properties and get a condition and occupance report.

Banks for lending purposes figure in 5% cost for loss of income yearly on rental properties. at least that's what mine had as average factored in on loan application.. didn't matter that I had had 100% occupancy with no income loss for 3 years on that property the bank still factored it in . 

Buy ugly or distressed and you should not have as much competition from those that want something turnkey or owner occupants wanting to house hack.