And each pay electric themselves.

In this building they pay their own electric bill, which is nice, especially since the heat and everything else is electric.

However, thinking realistically with my upcoming new job and finishing school, I probably will not have time, nor the energy for sweat equity, so I am thinking I should buy and hold to build equity, as opposed to focusing on building cash flow.I am aware there may be things I have not considered - so I am humbly asking the question --- What would you do if you had access to VA, FHA and conventional loans, approx 20-30K capital, good credit and low DTI?

In addition, we want to minimize the amount of TLC-work we need to do because we want to focus our energies elsewhere.  

However, thinking realistically with my upcoming new job and finishing school, I probably will not have time, nor the energy for sweat equity, so I am thinking I should buy and hold to build equity, as opposed to focusing on building cash flow.I am aware there may be things I have not considered - so I am humbly asking the question --- What would you do if you had access to VA, FHA and conventional loans, approx 20-30K capital, good credit and low DTI?

.- $20 electricity?

To determine if the quote is good price or not: are you insulating the garage, are you running electrical, assuming standard one entry, are parts included in any?

I am guilty over the years of drawing a line in the sand also, and in retrospect, from the viewpoint of decades later, I was wasting time, emotional energy, and relationships. 

Also we are pretty sure from just looking that the electrical panel will need to be updated.

Plumbing, electrical and HVAC all need completely replaced...this part we had a good idea of, but the excess costs including the mold are escalating beyond what we budgeted for since this is a 3,000 sf house.