@Chris Seveney  I live in Abilene and operate a short term rental here.

I would NOT advise a client to ever purchase a tenant occupied property with uncooperative tenants unless they are very experienced investors or the property purchase price comes at a discount that reflects this fairly major issue they are conveying to you with the sale.How long has this place been on the market?

The longer term loans would have lowered your monthly payments and decreased the costs.As for rent, each year you need to look at rents in the area to decide how much you will be increasing the rent by. 

If you're doing a rate and term refinance, there's typically not a seasoning period but again it's common for lenders to require it be rented first.If you're doing a DSCR cash out refi, it may not need to be rented first but you're probably paying a higher rate.Your best option is to call a loan broker you trust and go through the options based on your current situation.

Option A would allow me to keep it as a long term rental .

If you do the short-term rental thing right, you will avoid having losses treated as passive.

They are exceedingly rare, thus very expensive, but I believe they represent an excellent long term steady income and store of value.  

Being out of state, I would suggest vetting your "team", meaning find an investor realtor, lender/s (hard $ / long term), property manager, contractors, etc.

But, if you’re in it for the long haul and have the resources, flipping might be the better route.

I would find a loan officer that does both conventional and FHA renovation loans to compare which has better rates and terms for your situation.