I need to confirm with the lender but assume any such "partial" payments would have to be substantial and equal to at least 10-20% or more of the total loan?

I would love to connect with you, and see if I could be a resource for you. https://www.biggerpockets.com/...Here's a post I did for a more general look at NC, instead of individual market breakdowns.

Often(but not always) these neglected homes are owned by an elderly individual in an assisted care facility.

With funds, your money is tied up longer (3+ years) and depending on the fund could have multiple assets in the fund to reduce individual asset risk.

its not legal to pay referral fees to non licensed individuals..

I think the thing that might dissuade me from such a deal is if you needed to put a substantial amount of money down as again, financing is tough with leaseholds from my understanding. 

It will take a longtime to fully fix the problem, but substantial improvement could help. 

The smart TV will link to the website for this specific property.WiFi - Enable guests to quickly log onto Wi-Fi through a QR code.Ring-type doorbell - This is both a security feature and a way to track individuals entering and leaving the property.Property-specific website - Develop software that generates a property-specific website displaying distances to nearby shopping centers, airports, freeways, entertainment, and other relevant locations.

UNLESS, the hotel operator is changing how they do business and allow individual owners to run their own STR (although I am doubtful that would be the case).

Among other things, these provisions prohibit the DST from doing things like making substantial capital improvements, refinancing, raising additional capital, and other things that are typical in real estate operations.This limits what DSTs can invest in and dictates how they must be structured.