I've been hearing about this and understand it's popular in other countries and only starting in the USA.  

Start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free).

I would like to start a conversation about buying lots inside HOAs so I can learn from your experience.

Second GC undid all the work and started from scratch.

Google "skip tracing" and hire a virtual assistant or call center to start dialing any property that last transacted for under a certain price point.

And here we go....the start of the fall from earnings.

For it to be considered a legal (4th) bedroom it must be 70 sq ft/ have fire escape so im thinking it would be better to list it on the lease as office/storage space. 

One year also helps you maintain a schedule for inspections, rent increases, preventative maintenance, etc.If your lease doesn't have an early termination penalty, then the only thing you can do is start marketing and find a replacement tenant.

It's great that you're getting started Ka! 

Most often the terms specify that distributions are first paid to satisfy the preferred return and second they are paid to return capital, so the capital account would look like this:$100,000 starting balance$8,000 preferred return accrual($8,000) preferred return distribution$100,000 ending balanceIn year two, there is another $8,000 due, etc.But partnership agreements can be written however the parties agree, so the rules could be different and that would result in entirely different calculations and results.