You may get a better return putting your money in a CD.That said, new construction has problems of its own.

Should I walk away from the first property or try to raise private money to make both deals happen? 

., you might be cutting it way too close to really do anything. 15k is the bare minimum I suggest for reserves or oh no money on any project so that doesn't leave you a ton left to work with.As @Glenn Banks said, 203k is probably your best option because it's an FHA loan and you can do low money down and the reno is baked in, but the reno is complicated.

Simply looking at the price isn't a good way for an investor to make money.

I don’t have the money to begin something like BRRRR, but want to get into the game. 

Find your local Private/Hard Money lenders and partner with them.

I by no means want to spend money especially that amount but in protection of my life, and my family 's life and property due to their lack of communication had no other choice.

Even Do Hard Money that advertised 100% 100% you had to spend 3k on their training materials up front and spend 600.00 per loan submission.. so you needed up front money and also have to advance on the draws..

And oops, all your money is gone because it was actually a bad deal in the first place. 

However, it can be at times a bit hard as the low-hanging fruit is gone and there's a lot of eyes (including institutional money) on the sector.