The current rent covers the mortgage/interest/taxes/insurance but we come out of pocket the HOA fee (it is a townhome) we eat about $350 a month but we are currently clipping about $1000 of principle a month. 

You may have to eat some of the rehab for a little bit as you get more properties it’s easy to pay back really quick.

Let the banks eat the inflation.

Roosters too - the amount of noise they make is no different than any one of my neighbor's barking dogs.I will note though - unless the chickens have a LARGE outdoor run, any grass/vegetation will turn to dirt as they'll eat and trample on anything green.

  + My other concern is that it would eat into half of our savings, tying up cash, and our disposable income to acquire more real estate.

The interest carry will eat your profits fast especially if you struggle to get the project done and sold quickly.

Do I just eat that $6,000?

The HOA eats up all the cashflow so I've been looking into single family homes in Pompano Beach.

There are enough expenses associated with owning property that will eat into your cash flow over time, just regular maintenance stuff on an older house like this could easily consume all of your cash flow, and major capex issues such as a foundation repair or a new roof could easily eat up many years worth of capex reserves so I would recommend paying close attention to this type of thing.

If you are working with a conventional loan, your mortgage payment eats up more than 50% of your rent.