Contractors also saw an unauthorized pet during this time, which tenant confirmed.

Sending you a msg.

Even if you only averaged 2.8% appreciation annually, which if you've had it 20 years I have no clue how that's true given prices have well more than doubled in that time, youre skipping over the fact that you have been benefiting from that appreciation on the ENTIRE house, not just the % you paid for.  

Or are you talking about just owning a home or there that you consider your primary residence and that you STR rent when you're not there? 

You need a second and third opinion. 

Considering that, you are likely going to see appreciation year over year, which essentially will be additional equity you'd capture just by simply living in the home. 

VA loans are the only loans that allow this, and there is no rate penalty for it no longer being your primary home.With that in mind, you could do a cash out refinance today at a higher rate than current market rates which will create profit on the loan, we can take that profit to pay for your closing costs.

That's where you should start. 

The biggest hurdle I see with arbitrage is developing a pitch to use when approaching landlords, which you can probably do with a little research on BP and ChatGPT.

They probably want to be certain YOU are legit.Most of the scams I've seen are by non-owners.