If I sell, I will rent locally, my expenses will go up from my current $2200 mortgage, to $3000-$3500 rent. 

You could probably go as high as borrowing up to 80% of the after repair value (ARV.) 0.8*165,000=$132,000.

The right real estate team can help you find the best opportunities and structure the deal in a way that sets you up for long-term success.

I'm finding when I look at a given property, I get inaccurate comps in two ways: 1st, a property will show up in the list as a comp to my subject property but have a REALLY low sale value; upon investigation I find that the property acutally hasn't sold in 10+ years but PropStream thought it was comp; 2nd, a property will show up as "Sold" in the MLS status, but all ownership and transaction history tab don't reflect the new data.

I've heard of the Red Stick group although I was not aware of their monthly meet ups thanks for the insight. 

Your better bet may be to bring on an equity partner, just realize that you will probably be giving up 30-50% of the business if you go that route, but in the long run its probably end up doing much better.

If you are handy, and want to take on this project as a rent to own home, then I’ll sell it to you for $165,000 and as you fix it up and if it appraises for higher than that, then you can still buy it for $165,000 even if it appraises for $20,000 or $30,000 more than that.

A quick clean-up, minor touch-ups, and strategic pricing helped maximize its value, leading to a swift sale.

ended up being pretty solid and turnkey for the most part.

Our mortgage at the moment is around $2100 including taxes and insurance, this would obviously go up if we do refinance.