That being said, there's more to the equation than just rate and fees.

Include all expenses like property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and property management fees if you’re not managing it yourself.Network Like Crazy: You’ve already made a great first step by joining this group!

Offer discounts for applying in a short time period or- offer a free application fee. 

The main downside is being dependent on the HOA—issues like poor management, rising fees, or unexpected assessments can hurt your investment.

In the instance you refer too, this is in florida and I have seen in FL defendants get attorneys fees covered.

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

Without accounting for management fees (I have not yet decided if I will try to self manage), and with planning to raise rents to typical market of $825 for each of the smaller units, and $1200 for the larger unit, does this seem like a worthy first investment? 

If anything explain that there is a fee on top of a lifetime charge (which on its own is kind of weird), but okay. 

Now most of the time we don't see househackers/investors use in-house or portfolio loans from banks because sometimes they have more restrictive guidelines and higher fees for holding it which might cause the numbers not to work or for the deal not to go through entirely. 

Lets say it takes six months  - you just spent $16,000 in lender fees and your $50k you could have invested elsewhere for another $5k.