I agree with the others here that say you need to have some skin in the game, if you are going to live there yourself, get an FHA loan rather than owner financing, you can get a 3.5% down loan, personally I do not love these as they require  PMI which is an additional expense, and you also need  bring additional funds for closing at least for taxes, title, attorney and transfer fees . borrowing from anyone else for the down payment, to include a personal loan from the bank is not a good idea, those again will be higher int. rate.

From my experience, security has been good, there’s plenty of space around the pools and clubhouse area too, so it’s never loud or crowded, and the HOA appears to also cater to a broader more modern and contemporary audience, to include its Canadian, Brazilian and European guests and investors.

This includes cap ex, repairs (will a renter leave the property in the same condition you hand it off in?

The main differences (besides rates/underwriting guidelines) is what you can include in your renovation costs.

Maintain - includes taxes and insurance?

I live in a VHCOL area in Colorado in the mountains (~3.5 Hours from Denver) and single/multifamily homes in this area are extremely expensive.Things I am currently considering to get started include house hacking, STR, and real estate syndications.

A) The $40K cash on hand was not including my emergency fund and merely represented what I wanted to stick to as a low ~10% DP or to be used for a small refresh/reno. 

Would be curios if folks have also just included the cost of utilities at this price and left it unpermitted.

CA, in total continues to lose 100k's of population and continues to add onerous legislation, including the state rent cap they passed a few years ago (doesn't apply to sfr's though).I am not sure why anyone would want to jump in the deep shark infested waters right before feeding time, unless you have a clear proven strategy, or a very long time horizon.

-Interest rate of 5% is much lower than market interest rates. 7-8%+-There are no capex reserve considerations included. 5% is a starting point.