Note, even if you assume a VA loan, it still remains under the seller's VA certificate until the loan is paid off.

If the goal is psychological because you have too much debt to sleep well at night then sell some properties and use the proceeds to pay off the debt on your remaining properties; or better still obtain the services of either a psychologist who can get you over your uneasiness or seek out a financial advisor who can convince you of the difference  between consumer debt “ bad” and investment/business debt “good”. 

The seller was willing to carry the remaining balance.

If inflation remains sticky the fed may not lower rates much in the next 3 years.

I would list every single item your counting as capex, their useful remaining life and their cost that day.

I love USD and intend to remain faithful!

You are going to have a lot of trouble finding financing options with a 2nd lien and to 100% make up a purchase price (i.e. 100% debt financed with no equity or down payment "skin in the game") as part of your payment.I'd recommend looking in the "Creative Financing" subforum if you want to explore potential ways of doing this but frankly it is really difficult to find a genuine "shortcut" that wont end badly for not investing any of your money at all.BRRRR Method remains IMO the best for this but you still have to put some of your own capital to use during the process

So, if you have a VA loan already for $300k, then you would deduct that from whatever county you are buying in again to come up with your remaining ‘loan limit’.

So, assuming the store front could remain empty for long periods of time without the mortgage being in jeopardy, where is the risk that would be keeping lenders away from it?

I think the toughest part would be getting a lender that understands how the VA loans work with remaining entitlement.