They have improved some lately, but I am pretty sure that is because I started really letting them know I was dissatisfied. 

Joint venture with someone with cash or credit and you locate the deals and let them stroke the dough.  

As someone working with my father's home improvement business for the past 11 years, I have worked on multiple flips deals, just not on the investing side.

@Jeremiah Hilliard, if you owned and lived in the home as a primary residence 2 of the last 5 years, you have a capital gain exclusion of $250k (gain) if you're single and $500k (gain) if you're married filing jointly on combined lien amounts up to $1.2MM on a primary and secondary residence. 

So if I was in your shoes, I would put a little work into the curb appeal to improve that first look. 

Tell him your concerns, see where the breakdown in communication is, and figure out how to improve it going forward.

Anyway, the HOA is saying that not only do I need the typical exterior paint color approval and any sort of window shutter approval, etc, but there are HOA "fees" associated with improving one's property.

I enjoyed reading the details of your business plan and enthused to improve my own and add more detail.

#3b: Have you formed a legal business entity together, secured a FEIN together, opened a joint bank account or other legally binding business activities? 

Lenders also don't like to see these liens so even if the buyer wants it their lender may not.Maybe when you sell the house you can pay it off, with or without prepayment penalties, but if this is the case do the math to make sure this improvement is worth it on your fix and flip project, it may not pencil out, it normally doesn't.