Your only option now is to come up with the money to buy the place or come clean and admit everything to the owner.

I want to avoid holding costs with him holding onto it while we renovate, but how to I make this as clean as possible?

But if you allow tenants to have pets it is not maintenance free and needs to be cleaned/sprayed down etc.

He can also leave any furniture behind and we will clean up.2 – Flexibility to close/move in on date at his convenience.What other suggestions should I make to make my offer better?

First, clean up your house so you can expand it.

However, you can expect to recover about 50-55% of your investment when selling the home.Improve curb appeal, which is what you mentioned before, clean up the exterior, add landscaping, and make minor improvements to enhance the property's first impression.

Outfit the space as turnkey for an appropriate business (smoothie shop, dry cleaning substation, etc.) and sell the “business” with a small down payment, receiving a monthly payment for the business payoff + rent/3.

. - along with inconsistent incomeTo be honest this person should not be investing in real estate and focus their time and energy on getting a stable w2 or income and get their credit cleaned up first

I would be focusing on cleaning up bookkeeping, communication portal with client, vendor list management, payment processing, etc. 

When you look at the percentage of "clean" energy produced by each state, Kentucky is ranked 37 out of 50.