of the "great photo" examples having calendars that are wiiiiiiide open, with barely a booking on them.Fair enough, I pulled these from first page results of nation wide searches (it was skewed SE for me because I mainly look in those areas) so they obviously rank very high on the algorithm.

Ultimately its the brokers, PM's and lenders who are advocating for this strategy because they are collecting their fees.

For example, I mention that every adult must pay a $30 application fee, pass my credit/criminal background, make a combined income of 3x the rent, and whether or not the property accepts pets.

I know this seems low, but the way I see it, this is how much the buyer would potentially walk away with if they posted it on the market and minus all the fees and concessions so I am getting them to that number with none of the hassle and removing the issue of a looming foreclosure.

Something to consider to is that if you are able to refinance after the addition and pull out some or all of your new investment and the cashflow still makes sense then by all means I think go for it.

If you did a full repipe and gutted the entire property then I assume (in all that means) that there were permits pulled and this should have been caught when the inspector did their rough in walk through or atleast the final occupancy inspection. 

Top 3 reasons owners hire PMCs:1) No time to manage correctly2) No time to learn how to manage correcly: laws, documents, processes, etc.3) They're too nice and need someone to "save them from themselves"A good PMC can usually earn their fees by better managing the property/tenant than the owner, thereby:1) Increasing owners net profit2) Decreasing owner's time commitment, stress, headaches, etc.No matter what though, you should always plan to commit a couple of hours a month to manage your PMC.

I think a HELOC requires a certain LTV before you can pull any equity and 1 year most likely won't be long enough for any real equity to build.I would say.

ARV 690KSelling Price 500kRehab 85kAfter closing costs, points, hard money, lender fees...

Sorry you are dealing with that, it sounds awful.My guess is most attorneys are going to charge hourly on something like this unless you are suing the HOA for damages in which case they may take a contingency fee.