Also, there may be some common area electrical / heating that you have to account for.Occupancy - Perpetually full is great and using 5% for vacancy gives you a bit of buffer / wiggle room for the unexpected.

The HOA covers roof repairs, common drive and fencing.

This is common in commercial, especially with the larger national companies.

My husband is very allergic to cats and I worry that since he'll be doing a lot of the maintenance that this will negatively impact his health (I should also mention we would be house hacking a MFH in metro Denver).  

My story is probably pretty common...bought my Fall River, MA condo in 2007 (when I thought we had hit the "bottom" of the market...ya), lived in it for 5 years.In 2012, my wife and I wanted to buy a house, and selling the condo was out of the question since I could only get about half what I owed.So, we became landlords.And a funny thing happened…I enjoyed the process and a lot of things about it.I’ve found two great tenants who are low maintenance and pay on time.So here I am, looking for more property.I think I know what I’m looking for as far as a good deal, but I worry I’m not going to be able to finance the deal when I find it due to lack of funds.Hopefully between this forum, the podcast, and the half dozen books I’ve bought, the answers will come.We’ll see what happens!

That seems to be the common theme we direct mailers say.As for the properties you are wanting to target, I say you're on the right track.

"How/Why do/did you..." is a great way to continue the conversation, based on something they said in their answer.If this isn't an investor meetup, it will have some common theme.

They are in an HOA for the common good of a rental property to maintain exterior integrity and protect against a slum lord driving down values through lack of maintenance of the rules of a community or the repairs and landscaping needed to attract great tenants.  

They interface and work directly with the regular closing entity whether title company or attorney as you choose.California (and more states every day) does have a provision commonly called a "claw back" that involves some additional documentation with your Acct.  

common scheme in many markets however hooking up like this with someone you don't know is risky.for both parties.