Honestly, I think your best bet would be to really focus on your credit for now until you can get it to a level that is sufficient to do a HELOC or a home purchase.

For a while, I was trying to start a business of running vacation rental properties but ran into financing issues as I had an extremely hard time trying to get sufficient capital to expand quickly. 

You just might have  sufficient funds to close? 

Generally i try and stay away from contracts and deal with straight purchases but given the condition of the house i do not have sufficient funding to buy the house outright.

I feel it is a great deal and I don't want to get beat out on my first deal because I didn't have a cash offer.If a HML requires a renovation, then would a new roof and AC added be sufficient to allow for the loan to go through? 

This requires a bit more planning to make sure you never term out of your commercial mortgage during a period of time when values are not favorable for a refinance like at the bottom of a market cycle.So with sufficient foresight and use of the pro's while minimizing the con's I side with commercial financing from a RE investor perspective, but for the newer aspiring investors I will side with conventional since its financing with training wheels that favor the borrower.

How did you go about getting a sufficient contract that can help me get started?

@Dana PowellIf you have home owner’s insurance and require roommates to get renter’s insurance that should be sufficient I believe.

Offer to upgrade the AC in exchange for a sufficient increase in rent to pay for it.

However, if He doesn't have sufficient income to qualify - there aren't any banks that will lend him the money.