My emotional investment is in the money, not the property and I am coming at it from the "sales" approach and I am looking at it from an "income" valuation. 

So hopefully they might be somewhat supportive. 

If the AC is not working you will need an HVAC company to come out and tell if it's fixable or needs to be replaced.To be honest, everything you are saying indicates you are going to create a money pit for yourself.

Nothing, so I post on her FB biz page asking if she's just stealing my money.

I'd say the question is better suited for your financial advisor, who can determine the best use of the money.

I am wanting to sell all my stocks and just take the cash since I don't want to drain the majority of my savings/checking purchasing real estate and have most of my money in stocks.

Hard money with 20% down How did you add value to the deal?

The other option is hard money, how good of an idea is using hard money for my first deal?

It's a great way to increase your net worth and these loans can also be used to pull cash out of a property as it appreciates allowing you to reinvest money into new deals.Happy to connect to discuss further.

Why not buy it with private money, borrow enough for the purchase/repairs/carrying costs, and then refinance once the repairs are done?