Take reasonable precautions obviously.Right now we pay about $11/hr for help doing things like data entry.

But in both cases you're "comping" just the same.Another notable difference between single family home valuation and apartment valuation is in the availability of data.

Im sure a PVA data search would show where they have picked up land (likely 2-3 different plots) and then start looking for units around them to buy and hold. 

I would want to do my own to confirm what the issue is, so I can ensure I am fixing the right issue, and not the answer to some half assed research that won't fix the problem.

I currently have a large 1300 sq ft+ 1 / 1 condo that has a very high HOA in general but after analyzing the data it's also high for the building.

I know there's data out there regarding property prices, and there's data out there about the short-term rental market a la AirBnB, but do you know where I can find data on year-to-year leases for rooms? 

We keep the balance on this account equal to 3 months worth of mortgage payments just to ensure we have enough cash to cover a mortgage payment if someone's late on a rent payment.

This is because they scrape data off the MLS listing for their listing on their sites. 

Do the following, go to assessor's website of county you live in, locate GIS data organizing properties by number of units, download excel spreadsheet of addresses/owner info, import into google maps using site such as batchgeo, drive by and identify 15-30 properties you're interested in, skip trace owners to find current address, text/email/call owners, be consistent & do this every 1-2 weeks, you find a property in 1-3 months. 

They may hold funds a little longer to ensure all charges are in and clear so that they when they release funds, the account balance is at 0.