The only things left for me to do was to add appliances in the kitchen, add a fence in the front and had a lot of tree that were almost falling on the house after hurricane Baril, so I had to spend almost 5k in cutting the trees.

It is usually dangerous to assume you can cut costs. 

For me it cut down on the time to build an out of state team and gave me access to people who knew the area.

Wanted input on how much might be involved here to remediate, and what range of costs I am looking at, I fully understand that once the drywall is cut open there might be who knows how much damage to the framing, insulation, and whether it is worth it to even get involved with this property.

Quote from @Tiffany Roberts: Not everyone is cut out to be a Landlord.Yes, you may kick yourself in 10 years.

This includes some major items like below upgrading septic to elgin septic system 20kupgrading electric to new cod 20ktree cutting trimming 10ktrench/French drain 10khvac replacement repair 10knew plumbing 10kcrawlspace repairs 10kappliances replacement 5kdoors replacement 5kmold repairs 3kroof repairs 3kother repairs It is in good location.

I'd assume the 'favors' don't constitute payment.What is the best way to cut ties with him?

Furnishing is death by 1000 cuts; you're putting a lot of money and a fair amount of risk into a property that you don't own to make $300-500/month per door if everything goes right.

Neither one of us wants to retire this early, just the ability to find something we both really downright love and if that means taking a pay cut we want the means to be able to do that and not have it affect our lives too much. 4.

With this you can target areas and cut out the middleman.