There is so much MORE work involved as opposed to buying a fixer-upper and rehabbing that!

Instead of a traditional down payment, I would give them some money (maybe just to bring the loan back to even).The upside if taken over the loan at the current balance, with some rehab and hopefully getting the front lot back would be a nice ROI. 

I am trying to get a good hang of the rehab costs since I’m new to the are (from Dallas).

I also don’t like renting really nicely rehabbed properties, most renters don’t take care of properties as well as we would hope.

If you can rehab and refinance (BRRRR) to extract all investment and achieve neutral cash flow you would have infinite return (most of my RE investments have achieved infinite return but the cash neutral has in particular gotten a lot more challenging when the rates rose starting Q2 of 2022).Any money extracted via a refinance is tax deferred. 

At that time I had just finished an effort and was about to start a unit rehab and had the one from early dec in the pipeline. 

Also, is the property rentable as is or does it need a rehab loan.

On a rehab I have anything that needs to be ordered ready to submit before I settle , I place the order the day of settlement .

Another great option is the BRRRR method (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat), where you buy a fixer-upper, renovate it, rent it out, and refinance to pull your cash back for the next deal, and this is a good route because most private lenders can go higher LTV than on a rental loan! 

You'll find much greater difference in $$$$$ by refining your location/rehab/vacancy strategies instead of worrying about "how much it costs to borrow money" in this environment.Nearly all of my clients are more concerned with a simple and headache-free funding process, than the "lowest rate."