I will no doubt use them, and am currently involved in a couple of them already. 

Often, there is a fee to place tenants (I charge 1/2 of a month's rent) and sometimes there are other fees involved like a maintenance fee, trip charges, etc.  

Looking forward to my next steps in real estate to actively get involved.

Make sure its open to investors and you will have to make sure you are buying at the right price since you will be double closing which involves tow sets of closing cost fees.

Also involved in the real estate industry in South Florida.

With the right tenant selection and manager, you can minimize, mitigate, and transfer most of the risk involved in renting it out.

The best quote that I've gotten is 9%.Basically, Dodd/Frank prevented lenders from securitizing and selling those loans, so they must be kept on the books.I'm assuming since you have four families involved that you would need some sort of entity to hold the shares, and that's going to make it difficult to find financing.

Unfortunately it is INCORRECT.The determination of whether the sale of an investment is a security or not has nothing to do with the number of  participants involved.  

I am a newbie to real estate investing but look forward to getting involved.

The Association's policy may not cover a loss you're involved with.