It's important to conduct thorough research and potentially visit these areas to get a feel for the local real estate dynamics.Feel free to connect with local agents and mentors in your chosen market.

But I could have saved alot more on monthly payment if I had chosen to live in a bigger house at a different location. 

Volunteer with Habitat for humanity projects (or similar non-profit rehab programs) and get as much exposure in the community as possible.

Chosen for it's isolation and altitude.

You seem to want to discount that, but if you do, you're dead wrong and that's going to be to your detriment.When the agent is building a list of properties to show their clients, you would have to be spectacularly ignorant of human nature to think that offering little or nothing to a buyer's agent is going to result in your property getting equal exposure.Believe whatever you want, but you don't get to write your own rules.  

Those are more easily caught by an experienced human then by our algorithms and computer models.

Humans are adaptable if need be, it’s not their choice to live with parents or roomates but it happens when economic conditions require it.

@Barry L Hohstadt maybe this association has a history of underfunded reserves and has chosen to line-item the charges so that members would be absolutely sure that a certain portion of their fees were going towards the reserve.

I guess the best thing for me to do is put on my big girl panties and understand this is the world I have now chosen to get into. 

@Eva Huang As a Property Manager and a Broker in the Phoenix market you have chosen popular and common areas for purchase.