Although in our area, traffic can be so bad up and down I-95 that people regularly commute an hour and a half each day to their job.

As far as an exit strategy I don’t plan on selling them unless the area got bad for some reason.

Thus it might have some bad consequences to all the investor. 

Once you jump through the hoops initially it's not a bad area. 

They had bad credit and couldn’t just get a loan to pay off their taxes.

If something goes wrong the person can enter a bad spiral.  

Whoever you talked to at the HOA might have had an agenda or may have given you bad info so I would double check.Offering seller financing may help by increasing your pool of buyers.

Not necessarily who I want to have move in.I thought the advantage of the MTM was if I had bad renters or renters who didn't like to pay it would be easier to get rid of them, but there are ways to get them out without the MTM if it's THAT bad.

I would be a bit concerned about the area due to the low rents and price, but strictly based on the numbers it doesn't look bad.

If you do a straight subject to, they won't have any standing.That being said, a lease does give a tenant some rights, however the "equitable interest' I believe you are referring to will not give you much standing in court if the deal goes bad, no matter how much in repairs you did.