I see Jacksonville might also be a good city for investment but don't know anything about that right now .. objective is to buy 1, see how it goes, and do it again ... and again

There are a lot of shiny objects in this game.

(If it was installed at construction, that would be a huge red flag that the HOA is now trying to object to it.)  

Lets look at this objectively.  

If you know what your objective is and what you are trying to accomplish it will help you build a successful campaign around those ideas. 

I guess they have already lost enough money their objective is to REO the property and try to get back as much as they can, not spend more money.

Unless I'm grossly misunderstanding this, wont you have to place a large number of offers onto houses to get a decent quantity that will stick?  

UnQ.I have no problem avoiding dealing with bankers, to date... that's a big part of WHY I'm getting into REI (as a business model) and should be our primary objective for doing so, if one have any real MORALS.

If your primary objective is cash flow, you would look into markets that have a positive cash flow from the get go and if the mortgage rate equals or is lower than the cap rate, cash flow will often be negative.

Some lenders may object to you borrowing money from someone else to do this.