It is wrong to not report or acknowledge defects.

Nothing wrong with staying small either. 

My fear is I start shelling out a bunch of money on mailers to the wrong group.

I think it is an absolute waste of time and money... but I also think your numbers are wrong.

In general, there is so much wrong in this HOA.

I believe an architect stamp is only required for buildings > 8ft in height(someone correct me if I'm wrong).

We literally just had another post with I THINK it was a nolo link where the first two paragraphs were completely wrong as agreed by basicllay every post (well, excep the OP who was aking).i hope this helps. 

We do it for our clients all the time.But an OOS investor should be careful as there are so many ways they can get taken advantage of:1) Buying the wrong property, wrong location, etc2) Being overcharged because there's no transparency on actual costs and budget3) Shoddy work because no pics/video are supplied4) Crappy tenants are placed that destroy the rennovationsNone of the above are discovered until an owner goes to refinance the property or sell it.What should an investor do to protect themselves?

Not super old, it will have some things wrong with it but the structure and plumbing should still have a lot of life left in them.

So much wrong here it’s just too much yo handle in one reply.