Additionally, all odors and smells now permeate the entire house, for good or for bad, and the same goes for moisture, grease, etc.

You think you have stress now, buckle-up  because if you want any shot of actually getting there your gonna have to grow Rhino skin and carry Atlas's load on your shoulders my friend.

Here are our concerns;- Some of the floor joists have been exposed to excessive moisture and are rotting away. 

An experienced local investor with "skin in the game" would be someone I would more easily trust to define what works needs to be done.

Don’t try to help anyone unless they approach you and out skin in the game.  

Reason for keeping it is to keep skin in the game in case we want to relocate back to our hometown (wife likes the security).

Not all of us have paper thin skin.

Leave the AC set at 76 or 77 so you get enough air movement and dehumidification to keep moisture problems down, and split the utilities for those few months.

Good luck "By the way I believe you can succeed in both markets (high cash flow/low appreciation & low cash flow/high appreciation) but best odds are if you are intimate with the market."100% agreed and there are many ways to skin a cat (Sorry to the animal activists) hahaHaving the intimate market knowledge as you mention and an end goal will keep an investor on the path forward.Time is a beautiful teacher and will eventually reveal what strategy was best.Much success

$15m in EB-5, large skin-in-the-game from the local Seattle developer who put in 25% in equity through the land contribution, 75%/25% JV, blue-chip architect & well mapped out condo project.