Now that I'm sitting on a lump sum of money I'm ready to invest again.

With seller financing, the person selling the house lends you the money, and you pay them back directly.

It does require paying money and risking it may not make a significant difference to the assigned appraiser anyway.

As well, I would not recommend buying a cashflow negative property, or even breakeven for that matter, as there are lots of places to buy at positive cashflow - unless you have endless cash reserves and money is not a concern for you.

The Emergency Rental Assistance Program has a ton of money still available and they are granting people up to the full amount of unpaid rent AND up to three months of future rent.

Of course, sometimes it's difficult to sell a house this way if you have alot of equity since the buyer will have to come to the closing table with that amount of money before assuming the loan.   

There is no money in that business. 

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Make and keep a spreadsheet to track the money --- upgrades should be well thought out and always add value.

There is still money to be made in those areas.