I have credit in the low 700s and am looking to make a large down payment. 

My credit score is only like 670 which is below what conventional loans like to see and I only have about 3 grand to my Name.

The answer is that, if a house is in very poor condition, a homeowner will likely be unable to get a loan on the property; without cash, a homeowner can't compete for this type of property against an investor who does have cash.

If it is in fact just the baseboard that needs to be taken care of, then maybe it might be worth it to do it yourself after taking the training...but at the same time, you get a $1500 tax credit from the state for each unit you get lead safe compliance on...which would typically be enough to cover most of that work and the inspections. 

I would recommend that course of action on the next house.Also some lenders are now willing to pay your appraisal fee at closing so you could have gotten that $515.00 fee credited back to you towards closing costs.

Of course you'd need to qualify for the conventional loan so you'd need your credit, DTI, income, etc. all in order as well.

We good credit and so that shouldn't be a problem. 

You have to join the credit union, but so far they are allowing HELOCs on 3 investment properties that I have to move title from my LLC to my personal name, then will move back to LLC after closing.

I am in the process of refinancing my building and getting a line of credit.

I'm a "numbers guy" and the numbers fooled me into buying a poor property.