I'm dealing with that as we speak on a house for a client who will be occupying the property. 

I speak from experience haha.

If you just hire the cheapest or first PMC you speak with and it turns into a bad experience, please don’t assume ALL PMC’s are bad and start trashing PMC’s in general.

In speaking with an attorney, they advised these get held up for years as the title insurance company will bring in a lawyer and fight it out with the prior lender.

Ask to speak with some of their current owners and current/former tenants.

I'm not in your market so I can't speak to that. 

If you just hire the cheapest or first PMC you speak with and it turns into a bad experience, please don’t assume ALL PMC’s are bad and start trashing PMC’s in general.

We did speak to a real estate attorney and since our purchase price was about 18k over the final judgement amount for the mortgage foreclosure, the HOA is entitled to that overage.

Let's work with a value of $200,000  The purchase price is $100,000 the renovation is $50,000 closing costs of $7,000With a conventional "renovation" loan (yes, there are renovation loans...but not every lender offers them so make sure you are speaking with one that offers it to understand the pros/cons of going this route)15% Down Payment (yes, 15% down is the minimum) of your Purchase Price + Closing Costs - down payment is $22,500So total out of pocket here is $29,500 (down payment + closing costs).  

Speaking to an appraiser tomorrow!