Since they never gave me any notice in writing, then the contract is forced to go through.

See if you can get your family members to go with you.

In addition the majority of the not so experienced are either out of state (OOS) or planning on going OOS.So I am not recommending against going to the San Diego BP social as much as 1) setting an expectation 2) suggesting you may want to go to a meetup maybe associated with an RE investor club.BTW there used to be a near monthly BP Meetup at various RE investment properties. 

High crime rates with no one willing to go manage it means I have to put myself at risk to collect rent. 

And given you’re doing FHA it sounds like you’re not in position to go through this.   

.- just to give a sense of what kind of property i'm talking about, let's say the current plan is a 100k property in orlando fl. from what i understand, to pros of owning a condo is that most of the outside repairs are being taken care by the hoa, which means less troubles, downside is of course it will cost me 200-300$ a month (rough estimate, looking at the properties i checked so far) and from what i understand condos appreciation tend to go up less in time.so my questions boils down to the difference in repairs cost:- usually the rule i hear about allocating money to repairs is 1% of the house values. is that value the same for both condos and single family?

To me that sounds more like "Advance to go, Collect $200!"

I would never want my wife to go into those areas.   

Deciding whether to go into flipping or rentals is a big deal. 

Today came across boarding houses and I thought this might be the way to go.