I own my house in NC, but my "accident" has built up substantial equity since the purchase.I am ready to use the equity I have sitting idle and grow the portfolio.

Well, you will see my responses in bold that show the facts vs some guy sitting on the internet thinking he/she knows what they are talking about.

At the end of the day, you are going to keep losing money the longer your property sits vacant and the reason that there was a clause in place within the lease regarding terminating was to help yourself out.

The property actually sits in Atlantic Beach which changes things.

If I were you I would sit down with a notebook and outline 1, 3, 5, and 10 year real estate goals and get very specific about what type of property you want to pursue and how many deals you want each year etc etc.

And of course price usually is the issue if its priced right things sell  priced to high they sit at least for single family parcel. 

Or the opposite... what type of tenant will you get if you rehab a property to Class A standards, that sits in the middle of a Class D area?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bodum-Outdoor-French-Press-Gift-S...It is a Bodum Outdoor French Press kit.

There is a triplex property (4/3 main house, 2 individual units  3/1 unit, and 2/1 unit towards the back of the property) and 3 units sitting on a spacious and buildable  0.71-acre lot.

If the home is only worth $365K you cannot refinance to take out any cash and switching to conventional will only increase your rate so there is no tangible benefit to a refinance from current to Conventional.You are sitting at around 90% LTV if the value is $365K so a refinance would still require PMI and rates are higher than your 5.70% right now even with a rate buy down.