Take control of the property, turn it around, charge the tenant for cleaning, repairs, and unpaid charges, and find the next renter.

Unless you can somehow get control of the HOA I would pass.  

You can receive rent, pay the bills (only if your IRA has "checkbook control") and hire contractors to do everything else. 

I need to be protected from a government that wants to control my life, my health care, my education, etc...

In REI, macro-socio-economic factors may be interesting but, ultimately, they're beyond the control of the individual investor and largely unpredictable.

It was also hard to control.

Strong or weak markets overall may affect interest rates but I don't control them.

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.

Some pros: no large cash down payment; no bank/lender qualifying in order to control the property; ability to walk away from the deal at the end of the lease if things are not working out, and minimal risk.

If you can't control your DOM, your reserves may dry up pretty quick depending on how high you're aiming (most of what I have read has ARV's in the 150k type range, not sure where you're aiming).