That said, we're not overly familiar with this market, where to look, or what sort of funds would be required to allow a rental to work.Again, some sort of house hack and MTR strategy would be great but open to suggestions.

Answer to this is what will lead to reaching a middle ground with terms and conditions that make sense to both the sides.The fun part of such capital stacking strategies is that it allows you room for creative thinking.

This is a crucial step for me, as it will determine the success of my investment and allow me to move forward with future projects. any thoughts on how to improve property value?

Now, that the baton was passed to me I was allowed to build on it.

That said, there other practical considerations with the victim tenant in situation, meaning, maybe it's a "lesser evil" decision to allow the victim tenant to terminate early without penalty based on the circumstances.

We have quite a few properties where we allow people to STR them. 

From an Airbnb licensing perspective, it would depend on what your local municipalities allow.

The market is going to be a lucrative business if you plan to join the right team and use this forum as a Networking tool.

I am thinking of doing one vacant and one occipied, that allows easier showing, renovating a bit the vacant unit and helping w carrying costs.

A heloc/heloan won't allow us to break even on rent (even without property mgmt fees) and is up at 8.8-10%.