|As far as an inspection goes, Michael Bender is the most thorough inspector I've ever worked with and the only one I would use on my personal home.

Before making any decisions, I recommend exploring neighborhoods in person, talking to locals, and doing thorough research to determine which area aligns best with your preferences and lifestyle.

I don't know the guy personally.

I personally hate this because incentives are not aligned.If things go wrong with the property it's the PM's fault.

@Eric Johnson - If your rate is good, you could consider doing a "subject to" deal where the person buying gives you a cash infusion for the right to own one of those properties. 

It depends on what demographic you are aiming to serve.2) BiggerPockets, Facebook, in-person meetups.

I personally like to buy real estate that has A) excellent long-term prospects ie. area growth, commercial vibrancy, high housing demand, rising rental rates and B) positive or at least neutral cash flow.

Seems like your brother would be the person to ask.

I personally would spend that much to fail a couple of times to learn.

As far as you saying you don't know if it's in an HOA, it likely is, given how you described it and that shouldn't be hard for you to figure out just by looking at a Google Earth map (sometimes the name of the community will appear), or pay a local person off Craigslist to go drive it and find out the community name, take pictures of the lot, etc.