Hire someone to haul all the stuff away in the downstairs area instead of sorting through the stuff like I have been. 

I have an architect who is ready to draw up plans but I still would need some sort of estimate for the cost of the build being that I am using private money to get this deal done. 

Many of the solutions you have to deliver to get substantial discounts on property would have to be solutions to headaches that nobody else (including the seller) wants to tangle with.If you can't find any compelling problem in this section, you should seriously consider moving on with your life by referring them to some sort of service provider that might be more appropriate for them.

Is there any sort of subsidy built into the mortgage, or is it just a no-down, low interest rate loan product? 

My goals are sort of modest not really resolutions, we have 4 rentals, may or may not sell one or buy one, more keeping options open.

Unless whoever you invested with made some sort of materially false or misleading statements, engaged in gross mismanagement or some sort of fraud, could be tough and probably wouldn't make much of a difference in a bankruptcy filing.Returns are generally not guaranteed and many firms did go bankrupt due to the wide reaching effects of COVID.

Some of mine are personal to me, and not necessarily what I would prescribe to others:1) no HOA2) no condos3) a permanent moat of sorts.

That sort of stuff bothers me. 

We've partnered with a real estate hedge fund of sorts, this little old house is the first of many!

I have $15,000 cash I am willing to invest, which obviously isnt a lot and Im having trouble trying to come up with a way to invest alongside my dad and get some sort of equity or % of the monthly income the STR would bring in.Say I put in $15,000, my dad puts in the rest to equal 20% down on a $600,000 property = $120,000 total, $105,000 of my dads, say $15,000 of mine, that would equate too 2.5% ownership, and lets say I get 2.5% of the monthly income the property brings in, thats a paltry number. or 2.5% of equity in the property, that doesnt equate to much either.