Looking at houses in Rochester NY it appeared that some wouldn't cash flow w/o a mortgage.

Reading the buy-laws, there does not appear any legal reason for us to refuse it.However, for my peace of mind, I was curious to know if there could be any risks associated with an investor buying more and more units to the point where they could force the demolition or vote decisions detrimental to the residence. 

The rental market in the area appears to be large.

I am not having much luck, it appears it's competitive here too.  

@Dawn Anastasi yes the couple provided their midwest landlord who I called and got a raving review but it's a private owner so who knows, in retrospect.And they indicated they were staying at Extended Stay America Pasadena since they flew into CA, which struck a chord with me as months ago when I relocated from NYC, I also stayed in Extended Stay America but the one right near Long Beach Airport, until I closed on this house. in retrospect, i realize when i advertised for a housemate on CList months ago, i had initially indicated i stayed at Extended Stay America and had just closed on my home and was looking for a housemate (and found a great one just weeks ago, who is also from NYC but now works for Los Angeles Fire Department and Los Angeles Police Department thru a government contractor. would not put it past these characters to have actually stalked my CList posts and gathered info to use to sugar-coat their story. anyways i dont wanna get my housemate involved as he's new but at least he has connections as far as some of his clients, if it comes to that for whatever it might be worth if things escalate and/or become violent. i'm a very diplomatic person, not sure if that helps in this sutation though =/they offered to pay more rent ($300 more per month) and of course i said no, you need to work on finding a new place better and fast before time runs out for your situation. and in reply they (well the father, he does most the yapping) just asked me to install area rugs which they initially agreed to install in the first place even before 3 kids magically appeared in the picture and now are claiming the rugs will help deaden the sound but that I have to furnish them. guess there's suddenly a few screws coming lose as the act is finally falling to pieces. i mean who in their right mind is going to cater to their 'needs' after being lied to and my signature forged (God knows where else?!).

I would assume the 3% would appear as credit on the HUD statement during close.

In this case my dad operates a trucking business that the past couple of years reports a net (phantom) loss which makes it difficult for him to appear capable enough of meeting the financial responsibility of paying his debt service.

My goal is for steady cash flow, so it appears Buy and Hold is what I should be aiming for.

He seems like a pretty down to earth guy from first impression (only been to 1 meeting so far) but being new and not having experience it made the hurdles appear alot larger.

It appears from reading the article if you set up a good business plan, find your niche, set reasonable criteria, learn how to finance your deals, learn the terminology and have a solid marketing plan, thinks will turn out great.Obviously starting out, most people are going to have a rough time figuring out what a good "deal" is, what all the terms mean, what ARV is, and so on.