Network humbly with others while out there and don't sweat stuff wayyyy in the future. 

I'm treating this like a sweat equity/long term payout deal... 

PM me if you'd like the contact info.I put a good bit of sweat equity into this deal to continue furthering my knowledge which will ultimately aid in working with contractors on larger projects (I've put some degree of sweat equity in all of my smaller deals since 2011).

I'm positive that for $10k and some sweat equity the place would look pretty amazing.  

Buy it right and then don't sweat it. 

They didn't like that because it doesn't decipher between materials and sweat equity. 

On the other hand, if you had a friend with experience willing to teach you, if you put in some sweat equity, you could learn by doing at no cost.

I have a partner that will bring financing (80%) to the table and possibly a periodic sweat equity.

You can force a higher RTV ratio on the buy and lessening the dollar cost of the value-add through sweat.  

So don't sweat it too much.