At the end of the day, I want to buy and hold on this property, so I'd like a way to come up with the cash and refinance ASAP to get my cash out and have a traditional rental property.  

You can still try to get the seller to pay the fee, the buyer might could roll in the fee if the loan LTV is low, or the buyer could offer a consulting fee to the broker/agent to look at specific items.

As a new investor, what are the top items that I will need, besides money of course?  

In general I'm not a big fan of partnerships, especially advertised ones or with people you don't know as @Jay Hinrichs points out.A couple problems beyond that though:  a bank will only allow the borrower on the deed traditionally.  

It needs about $80k for the big ticket items, kitchen, 3 full baths, siding and central air!

Either their bid will not have all the items you want completed or you will probably over pay for the items you want done.

There is quite a bit of resistance by traditional investors to all CFing, IPOs are no different.  

However I find that the stories are almost always about traditional REI strategies like flipping or wholesaling.

Ask them specific questions and make them line item everything out to see what everything costs.

That way you know what deferred maintenance items you might be dealing with.