I'm going to take your comments about the communication to heart. 

I had tried to establish direct communication with jesse, but the GC did not want me talking to him.

You will often see this with their scheduling, communication, and even finances (asking to be paid ahead of schedule).

This is the emotional journey I went through and the key business decisions I made along the way.

Simple answer - yes you can alter your funding source after putting it under agreement if you chose to use a hard money lender instead - i would just communicate with seller that hey I was going to use cash (assuming you have it from your heloc) and instead will finance some of it but let them know its not contingent on financing.

With a lease many times over time landlords are not formal and communication is oral, txt, email, etc.

And the truth is, if the investment property was completely passive and you had zero connection with it, such as an arbitrary stock in a mutual fund, then I would agree not to get emotionally attached to any one investment.  

There is also the emotional aspect that makes us want to avoid certain things, like townies walking through just because they are nosey.

There is also an emotional side to owning a rental that landlords are subjected to.

Based on the excessive amount of hours spent and the lack of prior authorization as agreed upon and taking into account our prior communications regarding minimum acceptable owner distributions, I must insist at least the labor portion of the repairs be refunded.