How do you find these distressed home owners without paying a ton of money for some of these lists?

Most work like this: Rates: 9% to 13% (Most Deals are 11-12%)Terms: up to 36 Months (Most Deals are 6-12 months)Fees: 2-4 points(%) of loan amount paid at closing (Most Deals are 3 points(%))Minimum Loan Amount: $50,000 (For loans less than $250,000 $2,500 minimum fee)Max Loan: 65%-70% of After Repair Value(ARV)100% Rehab Financing Available (Require 20% of purchase price down payment or cross-collateral)Closing Timeframe: 48 Hours - 3 Weeks (Most Deals are 2 Weeks)NO PRIMARY RESIDENCES, NON-OWNER OCCUPIED ONLY, BUSINESS AND COMMERCIAL USE ONLY.

You are basically saying that you would like to transfer the long-term maintenance and upkeep issues that are coming soon to a new owner.

I'm more than happy to pay a GC for their time and to walk a site with me. 

They give you multiple-income streams that help protect you against the threat of vacancy and non-payment, and you can often substantially reduce your cost of living by purchasing as an owner-occupant and living in one of the units while you learn to become a landlord and property manager.

I bought a massive [9,000 sqft +basement] old [est.1900] building [church] at an online auction, site unseen.

Look at the FMV on the HUD site to see if your rent is higher than what is FMV housing for your area according to HUD.  

I have not done too many deals in your market, and I anticipate things are nuanced depending on the property type and condition and based on the personality of the owner....BUT it is common and customary in my world, which is usually retail/med office, for tenants to have at least some time of free rent during the buildout.We usually structure things as follows, and you can change the number of days around but this is traditionally what we at least shoot for when we have a tenant we are repping.- Lease commencement date is to be the 6/1/24 or when the landlord's work is complete. and we traditionally have penalties in place if the LL's work takes too long and pushes us past our initial timeline.- then we typically have "rent commencement" or when you start paying rent, to be the earlier of either 180 days following lease commencement or when you are open for business.  

Welcome to the site @Ian Groetsch!

I would also market the property on local Facebook groups, you may find that there is a specific group for STR owners in the area.