I'm not sure what your local laws are but here in Texas, I would recommend that you at least respond to the request and attempt to schedule the repair; I'd use it as an opportunity to go to the property and informally inspect it as well. 

I am attempting to apply and validate the knowledge I have learned, and hope to learn from any possible mistakes that I make.

Construction continued and we attempted to sell 4 months later after the market crashed to absolutely no avail.

That's a tall order if you're asking me.What I can never help but wonder is if it is so much work and hassle to find people, people you can trust, people you can work with, people you likely do not already have a relationship with, people you will inevitably take a risk with, why don't more newbie investors attempt to instead pool resources with other people locally???

Afterall you don't want to be short for the mortg and attempting to get money in before the draw date (assuming it is an autodraw because it seems like a lot of lenders are almost requiring that). 

I could also attempt to do a 203k loan; buying something distressed in hopes the ARV will be enough for me to refinance while also receiving monthly cash flow.

When I attempted to refinance it, I was told that it couldn’t be done.

The sellers also have 100 acres of land to sell separately and the buyer was taking 12 extra acres.  6 months later, the deal still had not closed and the buyer was attempting to get stipulations placed on the rest of the acreage the sellers owned (no industrial, no trailers etc). 

This is all an attempt to prevent basis manipulation. 

I think my next most effective step is to get out and network and attempt to find a property near me in the Chicago area opposed to looking out of state.