Either list for the higher price or take the lower price and get a better crop of tenant choices.

for birthdays, yearly upgrade of their choice when they renew their lease (replace old appliance that isn't going to last much longer, replace flooring- things I might do if the unit was turning over).  

It's not a choice (assuming they meet the criteria), and there are penalties for not paying it. 

That was a bad choice of time frame on my part. 

Sounds like you made a great choice on the property to buy, rehab and rent. 

I almost immediately got the high bid confirmation and I had no exit choice, it seemed, although I guess I could have not clicked the “confirm bid” button on my dashboard, which was sent on Sept. 2nd .

If your timeline isn't impacted significantly I would offer the seller the choice of reducing the price by the amount of a junk removal service or delaying closing until after the junk is removed.Was trash removal covered in the offer contract?

If you can't do traditional financing (which is always the best first choice, so Homestyle which is conventional, etc.), then you want a hard money lender that is for 6 months, maybe a year max.  

I just have to make sure that I am armed with as much knowledge as possible to help me make good choices and decisions when I do deals.

Do you mean that other lenders (e.g. smaller community banks) can put together a quasi-203k loan that allows you to use your choice of vendors?