The only time I would ever consider buying a property without seeing it in person is if I had Warren Buffet-type money, and the property was a tiny fraction of my net worth--and even then, I'd only do it if I had a highly, highly skilled realtor and inspector on the ground who I had a long history with, and who had repeatedly proven to me that they understood how to inspect and evaluate properties, HOAs and neighborhoods.As for the HOA: My impression is that most HOAs around SLC do not allow owners to rent their units...if this HOA does allow you to rent, you'll want to do serious due diligence looking at the HOA's contracts, asking about the structure and governance of the HOA, investigating how easily the HOA can change their contracts and how often they've changed those contracts in the past, polling the HOA members and the owners in the HOA on their opinions about owner's rights to rent their units, learning about how easy it would be, and how likely it would be for the HOA to ban renting or do anything else that could up-end your business model, etc., etc., etc. 

I'd wait until it was empty and clean because first impressions are critical.

If you don't do the homework, you will give them the impression you may not be up to the task of doing the homework with real estate investing.

I was not impressed by the inspector that I had for my first purchase, I think if I had someone more knowledgeable and insightful, I would have been more aware of the issues that I was buying into.

I was searching the forums and from initial impression have not found much on the topic.

I own several STR's that all generate impressive income.  

I was under the impression that when a property is clarified as common area for an association there is very little you can do with this purchased property.

If you don't do the homework, you will give them the impression you may not be up to the task of doing the homework with real estate investing.

I am happy hitting doubles,,,,,,,  I see, I think most of us were under the impression you were under contract.

Wow thats impressive, thats also a goal of mine at the moment is trying to figure out how to get multiple Great units off of great deals and hoe to fund them.