I would save all the pennies you can from your roommates rent any any other surplus income you have until you can refi,  but only if you can actually reduce your payments significantly.  

However, the cost might not equal value if you are creating surplus land for rather than adding to the highest and best use relative to the price of the additional lot.Get an attorney involved to ensure you are covering your due diligence.One item that comes up is if zoning/land use law requires to parcels under common ownership to combine to one parcel or be for the same use.

There is a short-term surplus of STR availability which I feel will be short-lived as new construction is not coming close to meeting demand from those migrating to the area. 

Is there money to be made by helping people recover their surplus foreclosure funds?

For that, you have to go to the surplus lines market (high risk).  

With no inventory and a surplus of buyers in my area it's not getting any better.

What do you mean by excess or surplus funds?

Claims he has surplus countertops and other materials to improve it.

If you go acquire another property that cash flows, you then have that property being paid off and can use the surplus towards paying off the remaining mortgage on the place you currently live in.

Homeowners insurance is fairly cheap and can be the difference between a net surplus at the end of the year or a deficit.