Here in PA, it's not unusual to have a home without one.

And then small business and consumer confidence brings us back out.This downturn is unusual in two ways.

I am also personally considering, despite being uncertain of it's value for me being in Germany. 

This is a great thread and important to see positive stuff happening in uncertain times. 

Sorry for taking so long, but I've been having my own growing pains.One of the things we're not really looking closely at is the hyperlocality of Pittsburgh, a fundamental understanding of the unusual nature of this place and how, through insularity and other factors, it tends to punish long-distance investors.

Keeping a property that you are uncertain about is always risky because you know the value today but what about tomorrow.

Maybe you have it set up differently but that would be unusual to say the least.NO kidding if this is actually true then he has a 30 day late and just fubared his credit. 

The HOA fee is unusually cheap, but you have to subtract that out from your rent before you get to pocket anything- and it may go up.

Contractors are in very short supply here, so expect unusually severe cost overruns and time delays due to them being scattered and thus hard to pin down for job completion.

Doing it yourself is seeming like a better idea at the moment, with two unusually bad results from local contractors in the past few months.