I know it depends on the context, but are there are better paths i can take in general before trying to secure financing for the house.

There are a great many paths that you can follow. 

That would definitely propel you forward and given that you are a contractor you should be able to come in well under $100k rehab since you can probably do most of work yourself and save a ton of money.

@Adam Jaken - There are a lot of places and avenues where you can definitely make more than 5-6% but I would suggest you pick a place and research it to get to know the market.

I'm definitely not trying to steer the appraiser, since of course that's not allowed.  

Get to the podcasts man; they're definitely gold for anything you want to learn about.

-buy cabinet doors bumpers. gift to neighboor and tenant-alternative option: buy a 1/2 box of donuts. talk with building engineer (@John Anderson: the shortest path between point A and B is a straight line. going to HOA (as you know already) is the 1,000 miles path)

@Doug Vigliano  Thank You so much, I definitely agree.

Definitely want to connect more an hopefully do some business in the future.

@Ashish Khera You can definitely make a loan to the LLC, however I would keep this at arms length and charge a proper interest rate so that it does not look like the C Corp completed a distribution of its dividends.