The choice is yours and the more knowledgeable you are about the real estate investment, the better your chances are of getting the kind of return you would like to see.Real estate is a marketplace, and caveat emptor is a time-honored rule.

Then it's almost never a bad time to buy.

I believe the difference between the people that want to get in investing, or buy a property and stop and the ones that have the courage to keep going and learn from their experiences, good and bad is the Mindset and understanding investing at a deep level.Good luck to you and make sure you buy your first property within the year the latest.

True, I'd avoided bad consumer debt, worked on my 401K, and did some saving, but I never started building a snowball toward wealth and freedom from a cubicle.

If the condition is just too bad for this, and rules & regulations prevent this, consider #2.2) Seller Finance with a reasonable down payment and carry the note for the difference. 

If you choose to work directly with the seller, that is your choice but then you might not be able to get help from a realtor.Some relators might do a CMA for a flat fee or to provide you what you need, but that does not prevent them in any case to show the property to their clients..If you want to do this on your own, that is fine, but then you need to do this on your own.If you are starting in real estate, you might be better of working with a local relator, it might save you money and issues down the road.

Without knowing the many variables needed to know if this is a good deal, I can tell you right away buying at 80%+ ARV is a bad idea, especially with the issues you mentioned.

I’ve got about $25k cash, $60k in credit lines, good contracting and industry experience (did multi-family portfolio management for a while) and no job (so no mortgage opportunities).For you MN folks, what’s the bottom of the “crappy but not tear-down” bad?

That's not a bad plan either. 

This should help alleviate the bad blood at this point.