You made a series of poor Choices but you did make one good move in all this and that is you have a short term lease .

2) A local, small town bank/credit union?

Anyone in the Milwaukee, WI area know of a bank or credit union that will do a HELOC on a rental property (not owner-occupied)? 

Don't sell your home, just get a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC).

Those goals are important, and you shouldn't put yourself into a BAD deal, just to get into a deal - but - I feel very much like I'd rather get in with relatively poor CCR, just so I can start the train moving down the tracks.  

and they might should go find a money partner and leave the poor land owner alone  LOL...  

Turnover every lease also means to me the property is in a C-D  class area and/or there is poor management of the property.

That won't help your credit but at least you'll feel better (Probably not) knowing she has the liability.

Neither have a mortgage, owned free and clear-No high credit card balances-Credit score - TransUnion as of 7/29/18 - is 796We haven't decided if we will sell the townhouse or keep it and rent it out.

I have great credit, but I would like to avoid shortterm debt costs.I realize that I would loose income by delaying the renovation, but it is often hard to find good tenants in winter anyway.