Obtain a current standardized Realtor contract for your state and use it.

Obtaining a HELOC to increase our investments.

You may need to look into obtaining another hard money loan to get out of the current one.

Is it still possible to obtain a conventional loan? 

Not only that, you'll need 10-25% down to obtain one of those loans.

A little backround: The property is vacant and was gutted by the taxpayer who had obtained a private mortgage and defaulted when I guess the project went sideways.

So for buy and hold, I get the saying if it is not broke, don’t fix it, but that does not hold true much of the time.You have to do a financial analysis of cost vs the increase in rental rates you could obtain and see where it comes out.

This requirement is pretty easy to obtain unless if you live in a higher priced area where rent to price ratios are not conducive like San Fran, seattle, NY, Orange county, LA, bay area CA, etc.Other than these two issues you'll be fine as long as you have qualifying credit, income, and "sourceable," down payment and closing funds.Thoughts or questions, let me know hope that helps.

It's possible as OP stated that the seller obtained an attorney that doesn't specialize in real estate and may be doing the job on the cheap rather than getting an attorney who specializes in the area and would be paid in line with their specialization.

Just to clarify, house-hacking involves occupying an investment property for at least a year, in order to obtain favorable loan terms and a low down payment.