Since most of the homes that flooded took on electrical damage, you will almost certainly need to file a permit to do renovation as you will need the electric company to shut the power off, provide temporary meters, and turn the power back on.

Cars decrease net worth over time.

Hard money is mostly for flipping properties or using it as a bridge money for a temporary solution if you need more time depending on what type of trouble you get yourself into.

This is a temporary setback, not a roadblock.

Should I wait until I can put 20% down on a property to decrease the monthly mortgage payment?

I would love to keep it as a rental but at this time I think it would take too long for the rent values to increase enough to make sense Worst case scenario is I have to hold the home for an extended period if the market decreases short term. 

If we are analyzing a turnkey property, is it reasonable to decrease the repairs and capex to like 5% each?

You can find higher ROI (on paper) here and probably in other cities…but the probability of actually collecting rent significantly decreases.

early/prepayment only decreases the income/value of the pkg. 

I don’t want my wife to be on anything to decrease the amount of paperwork and such she needs to sign.