I come across a person who has a commercial strip of 7 stores free and clear worth around 2 Mil.

Any investors/ buyers of mine looking for a vacation rental in Colorado tens to have dual goals -- investment and personal use.

I can’t work with interest due to personal preferences so I don’t know what option will work the best for me. 

If you can find a solid deal or house hack locally, do it, but just beware of the fact that CA is not a big landlord friendly state.

It's for a duplex (no personal use) DTI and everything is good.

I would be delighted to meet with you in person to discuss any opportunities for involvement or to simply introduce myself further.

Then I have a solid baseline to start the rehab.  

My personal advice is cut your losses and move on. 

I’ve only sold 2 personal residences and I sold them both myself.

If you want 10% returns you might have to look in another market, but if you want to park some money in a solid property, as long as it generates enough to break even after all expenses, taxes, etc. to allow you to hold on to it for 5-10 years I'd bet it will do better in the long run than a 10% cash flow property in a lower end market.