I cut the wholesaler out.

You are too tied to those two decisions, neither which are good in my opinion.

The seller already has given me a good deal on the property due to her being forced to return to NYC for work post-covid (seller is paying $20K out of pocket after overpaying for the property 2 yrs ago, and sellers agent is taking a commission cut to make the deal work).

It goes deeper than that.NYC Liberal policies, including strong tenant protections, increases the risk of failure so much that the risk far outweighs the rewards.Financial ruin is just around the corner for the small Mom and Pop Property Investor that it doesn't make sense for them.The Tenants will have free Attorneys that are bent on delaying eviction cases so long that it stretches into years while Mom and Pop suffer from lack of rental income and still have to pay all the bills and do the management.Additionally, the increase in homeless living rough in the streets due to Sanctuary laws causing a lack of shelter beds, then evicting shelter residents after 30 days creating more homelessness, policies that tie up the Police's ability to arrest perpetrators, etc. only causes Mom and Pop to sell out at large discounts to larger Landlords who are capable to use Economies of Scale to eek out a profit.These larger Landlords will eventually turn a much higher profit as the pendulum will eventually swing towards the middle when the NYC Voting population eventually realizes that it's not a conspiracy of the Rich that's causing the Wealth Gap to increase.It's the same liberal laws that encourage people to become lifelong tenants, small Entrepreneurs (including Property Owners and small Mom and Pop Businesses) to be destroyed, and Rents to rise astronomically as housing becomes scarer even when the population declines by as much as 7% in the last several years. 

And, you have an additional $3k in drywall work that wasn't planned because the electrician needs to cut holes to pull the new wires.  

The money is "tied in" (you can't get it out if you need it) for the length of time for the project.

After the election and purported rate cut(s) from the FED, I expect buying activity to pick up rather noticeably, which means more competition and likely higher prices. 

We've tried to offer this service in the past, but had few opt-ins from property owners:(BTW: Weekly mowing though, costs at least $30/cut!

Move on, cut your losses, learn from it and invest in better markets next time.

I manage my own short term rental and have one cleaner who does all turnovers and another individual who cuts the grass every two weeks.