They pay approximately $995 a month in principal, interest, taxes, insurance and HOA.

Some have possibility only as a condo purchase, which at first I was very reluctant to entertain, but in markets such as Phoenix, it doesn't seem like a bad idea.A single family house can be bought in Alabama in an A/B area for 150,000, but if I go to Phoenix or Raleigh I can get a two bedroom condo for 85,000-100,000, though the HOA fees would be approximately 200 dollars a month.Any advice?

This is actually done on larger apartment complexes and HOA's.

2 bed 2 bath, 1020 sq ft, built 1987$355,000 offer ($365,000 asking)$30,000 to make rent ready (includes $3500 two months holding costs)$1141 mortgage (25% down at 3.125% for 30 years)$381 taxes$75 insurance$150 HOA$141 vacancy (6%)$265 maintenance and capex (12%)$2350 rent$197 cash flow$400,000 - $405,000 ARVI think this one is accurate compared to my last attempt. 

@Leonidas Loo - my rental is a townhouse so the HOA takes care of all that for us.

If your HOA covers exterior expenses, you should be able to reduce your capex to 5%.

HOA fee is $2,400 a year.

Or should we go with the townhome/condo near ski places which would improve occupancy rate, though it does come with 500-700 HOA fee monthly.thanks in advance!

Unfortunately the only way to disqualify them was going through the process until I found the property was a second position, hoa, foreclose was deficient, surviving liens etc..Creating a report with only relevant data, grouped and ordered a certain way would allow me to see disqualifying characteristics very quickly...so that what i set out to build I started with only a few fields (case number, folio, address) used that data to look for other data like owner names , then that data to check for liens, mortgages, court dockets , violations, tax bills, permits,  etc..it was definitely a challenge to say the least.Data is vast and its spread out in many sources all with different  challenges i.e search parameters, integrity and availability To name a few...

There is a lot in Condos with HOA rules and fees.