The renovations are covered at Replacement cost.  

In the event Sellerfails to close the sale of the subject property pursuant to the terms & provisions of this Agreement, Buyer shall be entitled topursue legal recourse for specific non-performance and shall be entitled to compensation for any costs associated with suchactions, including but not limited to escrow fees, title fees, attorney fees, court fees, etc.

It's family and I do much of the engineering/cost modeling work for the existing operation.

I find the houses and do the designing/ decorating and financial stuff, he does the majority of the labor. 

Replacement Cost:  the cost to rebuild the structure with the same kind and quality2.

The cost of living is extremely low compared to other cities and you can still many many positive cash flowing and 1% deals here.

During COVID, evictions stacked up costing tons of legal fees and bad debt.  

I'm not sure what area you are looking at but purchasing a lot here in colorado for example you'll have the costs of drilling a well, installing a septic system, running power to your lot, installing a driveway, etc, etc.

Is there a way I can wrap renovation costs into a conventional loan?

I noticed that one individual is taking a higher replacement cost compared to the other.