Our business model is converting to automated 24hr access.

Then having the moxie to enforce it.Hopefully all will go well so you can indeed regain possession of your property soon.

If these don't match your model, figure out why.Verify the net income with tax returns.

Using IRR will help model out the timing issues of when you realize your principal payments.

The HOA foreclosed and took possession of the property. 

But they are real estate professionals, many with formal research and investigation backgrounds and all with million-dollar pockets, and casual here-today-gone-tomorrow looky-lookies are not going to compete successfully with them.The best advice I've ever heard about spending money at the auction went something like this: if you can't afford to drop the money you've budgeted to spend at the auction in a pile on the sidewalk and burn it right there, if your business model can't survive that, don't bid.Again, I would say a real estate auction is a great place to learn a lot about real estate by studying and watching, but it's not a place to learn by trial-and-error.Best of luck to you.

However, my full-time job in corporate strategy provides me three fundamental skills I believe will translate incredibly well to real estate:Quantitative analysis and model-building are core skills to being able to judge the value of a potential market / acquisition in my daily workMy daily success hinges on instilling efficient, scalable business processes and getting creative with incentive alignment to ensure everyone is working toward the same goalAs a strategist, my work on the above has zero bearing if I haven't earned the trust of those who must execute against them.

If this model works out, our plan is that eventually this property will feel like an upscale campground that might also be desirable for large families or reunion groups to book multiple units at once. 

I'd love to be able to leave keys in the contractor's possession so that if neither the tenant, my husband, or myself could meet them they could access the property.

If you are planning on building multifamily as a business model and are looking to repeat a process then building the same plan, over and over again, can be incredibly helpful, efficient, and cost-effective.