Maybe more color on what problem are you trying to struggling with as it was not clear to me.  

Added 1.5 bathrooms, some landscaping and added an outdoor deck for outdoor living, pressure washed the home and painted the front door to provide a pop of color.

Despite the big city rents, the proximity to our work & family is fundamental to our quality of life-meaning we cannot stray far..These current mortgage rates are putting serious pressure on me to finally get some skin in the game, but I’m paralyzed with the following conundrum:-do I House Hack a Queens deal with a HUD/203k or Homestyle fixer upper putting 5-10% down (I’m in no rush to move & can wait for the right deal to make it work)-or do Buy & Hold/BRRRR somewhere up the river, where I may be able to put 20% down on a multifamily in a sustainable market?

There are many roles within real estate, so having a little more color on what you mean will help direct referrals and recommendations.

I have steady income (w2s), I have cash in the bank to have “skin in the game” but would really like to get it out after refi do keep doing deals.

I've seen a lot of people mention Toledo for cashflow, so I started looking MF in the area and I found this property:1338 Brooke Park Drive Toledo, OH 43612 (8 Units - 2 Bed/1 Bath each) $280KI ran a rental property analysis on BP and filled out (conservatively) everything I knew how to (I don't know the area very well). 25% down, 30 year 6%, $4K monthly income ($500/unit), $3500 property taxes, $5000 annual insurance (shot in the dark, this is one of the things I have the hardest time estimating), 7% repairs/maintenance, 8% capex, 5% vacancy, 9% property management.

Trail Cameras are motion activated, can take pictures and video, date/time stamp, and they usually can see in the dark so you can catch them at night.

Opening a suit would cloud title and at least make him come to the table instead of just going dark, but that would basically be a stop gap measure, essentially a bluff unless you're actually willing to wait a long time and tie up a lot of money to reach a resolution.

In hindsight we were looking for the color to help the house pop on that street, didn’t pan out as envisioned exactly.

Guess what tenant goes out in a few years and now you are left releasing the dark space at much less rent per ft than the market and your down payment and equity is GONE.Owning NNN is passive but there is an art to the process of buying it.