Contractors, unless you have a working relationship with them, normally do not want you bouncing ideas off them.Understand what their hourly rate is, have a discussion with them that you are okay with paying them an hourly rate if they walk the property with you and provide you a scope of work along with an explanation of what you can/can't get away with in regards to improvements.ask them if you go with them, if they can credit you the amount that you paid.Once you develop a working relationship with a few contractors, you can bounce ideas off them and expect quality responses.I do not invest in New York.Best of luck. 

Renting it out while strategically leveraging the equity could be the best path forward.As @Jaycee Greene said, DSCR looks at your credit rather than DTI.

There are no magic pills that make the word "turnkey" mean something special. 

If I didn't have to use credit for a portion of the course cost ($7k) and marketing costs ($1k/mo), I would do the course. 

The only other option I see is a short sale, if you don't need to purchase for a few years and don't mind a temporary credit hit to save the $60k.  

Or does one need a special license / need to open a company?   

Alternatively, if the bank ( assuming there is a bank) is fine with it, you could negotiate a credit and escrow the funds to be released after you do it yourself.  

For a $300,000 property it could be $30,000.Then, do you have that much cash or credit available to you, in the event of a Due on Sale call?

Many community banks will give you credit for proforma rents.  

You can't run a credit/criminal without the social.