I’m ultimately interested in focusing on buy and hold for the long run with single family up to 4-plexes to get a start and build experience.

Talking face to face is much more effective and there are not a lot of investors doing this as it can be a very cumbersome activity.As far as having a hard time finding PM's and GC's go... most of the bad PM's have been run off or put out of business, but many investors expect their PM's to do everything for free and don't want to spend any money in maintaining and protecting their properties and keeping their tenants happy.

My podcast (Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever Show.My podcast is the world’s longest running daily real estate podcast.

Run buddy.  

I think their rent is super low for the area but nothing I can do until their lease runs up.

For purposes of discussion here, assume the HOA is well run, the annual operating budget is sound and the account balances for reserves are within the guidelines set forth in the most recent reserve study.  

Normally it will run you 8-10% and 2-4 points.Unless you can increase rent significantly, or find some other way to increase NOI, I would pass on the deal.

We won't be throwing big parties, we are all engineers and we prefer the bar scene.

I am trying to soak in as much information and advise as possible while working my full time job running a doctor's office, so any tips and information thrown my way would be very much appreciated.  

Often you can demo/trial run the software.