What are other options to buy and hold while recycling my cash and not getting too deep on negative cash flow?

You will have to buy at a very deep discount since your rate will be very high.I follow that guy as well, and it does look like he does good work. 

Do you want to spend your time on the day to day management of a property or be deep in the weeds of project managing a renovation or do you prefer to be more hands off?

I can't speak from experience, but--if you haven't done so already--perhaps consider diving deep into for-rent postings on Craigslist, Apartments.com, Trulia, Hotpads, and other similar sites.

Eat Breakfast at Cafe Brasil in Deep Ellum, lunch at someplace in downtown Denison, stop for coffee at Sandwich Hag in the Cedars (Dallas) and then have dinner at Lockhart BBQ in Bishop Arts. 

If you have a property you feel is distressed, then dive deep into the local courthouse records to learn more (assuming that's public info in Montreal), then go out to the place yourself.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2830-Deep-River-Rd-Sanfor...

I can't go up against the deep pockets at the auction.

But better yet, do a deep search on this very Forum and see what actual S8 Landlords have said about this.whomever wrote this " cut and paste " is clueless.

And would you invest the money to do the performative deep cleaning knowing that subsequent tests would likely show  the same levels after all was said and done?