You only have the mortgage/note.Also, some counties make you start at a certain percentage of a price they select.

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Your example does not look appealing to me.At the root of the problem is most likely two fundamental issues:1) Unrealistic criteria about what makes a deal for investors in your area.2) Insufficient deal flow to select opportunities from. 

I would be willing to bet there is a process in place for being elected/selected for he HOA board, so that if one disagrees with the rule, one attempts to change it.

Considering the fact that this is my first investment I want to know any advice that you may offer in terms of negotiating the house, selecting a bank (I posses a 785 credit score), closing costs. tenants, insurance, basically anything that I should be paying attention to. 

I selected the contractor that worked best for me and pushed forward. 

Yes, there are only select sections that even remotely apply to us, so the need for reading the rest was more a bragging right than anything. 

We're always looking for more deals to buy, and we also partner on select deals with our students, as long as they meet our acquisition Criteria should you be interested.  

The area we selected is a nicer area due to the fact that we will be living in one of the units.

For example: Lumber at most Home Depot's is crap, terrible selection for redwood and pricing not so great.