The HOA wishes to "preserve" their property value by social engineering to force homeownership, but the opposite comes to pass - most qualified owner occupants have more expensive homes, and folks who want to occupy those units are not qualified to own.  

Contact your local historic home preservation society (or similar group), and ask for their recommendations.

P-2 Preservation General.

http://kuow.org/post/rent-control-illegal-seattle-...http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2017/04/chair-of...Tenant Ownership can be a powerful tool to create, preserve and improve affordable housing.

This will protect your uncle and you and preserve the relationship in case the deal goes south.

I personally don't thing it "adds" to any of those things, it merely "preserves" the original value and life.

Do whatever you can to preserve the equity you do have for as long as you can.

Some stop after that to preserve age/value. 

Personally I wouldn't do it.I want to control the area I am investing in to preserve values as much as possible.I have seen many landlords and the range of how each works is mind boggling.Some are slum lords and know it,some do an okay job but think they are the best thing since sliced bread,and then a few actually keep up their properties really well.I would buy the whole building or no dice.The 2 unit you are looking to buy you could contact the landlord next door and see if they want to sell.

Long story short, my grandparents are cosigning because my lack of credit history and short income history - I started a property preservation business at the end of last year and made a good bit of money since then.