Units routinely get shown and leased while current tenant is still there.  

That show:Unit A: Father$500 rent / month to month leaseNo security Deposit and he agreed to fix some things.Unit B: Unit A's daughter and two kids$250 twice a month ($500) rent / 6 mth lease ends in April$300 depositPet that's not allowed in leaseBoth pay on time with no issues.Unit A is updated and could rent for $650 a side with minor cosmetic fixes like paint.

MN winters with routine salting that could be the difference given how long and cold they are.      

yup our first house was a cosmetic fixer up that we used out a little over half of our va for.

. $4-5k in cosmetic repairs are needed.

Seems now I need to hone my search in on properties that are currently rented at- or nearly at-market with one unit that can be delivered vacant for owner occupancy OR some diamond in the rough completely vacant property that just needs some cosmetic upgrades to be rentable at market to quality tenants.  

The home is 1700 sq ft 3bd 1bth the realtor I was using Im no longer using at this time I purchased it for 10,500 renovation cost was 9k the wasn't in bad shape at all just minor cosmetic work the comp on the area last I checked were 45 to 65k but I only listed it at 30k at this point I'm confused on it all and stuck between a rock and a hard place

But I am concerned that there is too little wiggle room bc of the high balance of the mrtg, the low, yet still existing costs to cosmetically update the home for a high-end/maximum return, giving the seller some funds, and then our fee, paying 300K+ seems a bit steep to present to our cash investors, but they would yield an $85k-$95k return if flipped; which may change their minds :)What I want to know is, what are some of our other options to save/participate in this deal?

I feel like there's some routine compliance things that I missed along the way that I should be doing.

Now some of the small jobs he has had 2 guys do that work for him-like power washing the house, some cosmetic things inside.