In cities desperate for revival (Rochester and Binghamton are high on that list), this is the wrong move. 

That sounds like someone who has been going in the wrong direction financially for whatever reason.

Most invest in these smaller assets focusing on wrong criteria leading them to markets without meaningful appreciation and even when they do stumble across a market with strong fundamentals they do not understand  real estate finance and/or fail to exit these assets when they the appreciation event occurs wrongly focusing on rental cash flow.The ability to combine a high earning W2 with a sound investment thesis is a winning recipe but not realistic for most.

When you say professional quote do you recommend just paying a trusted contractor to do a walkthrough or do you first recommend getting an inspection to figure out what’s fully wrong/needs to get fixed before bringing in a contractor?

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

There’s no right or wrong answer. 

If I am wrong in who actually financed your deal then my question is how do you pay a HML back if you intend to hold the porperty. 

I don't know who you are or what your agenda is, but I assure you, you've got the wrong guy.  

So, it's either get your real estate license or have a really good friend who will list them for you who wants to look them up (but most agents don't know what they are doing and do it wrong).

Your going to have a lot of money on the line to get maybe $25k back, if nothing goes wrong.