I am not sure if a HELOC would do any good with rates being so high, it could also pull your DTI up too much, but it might be worth looking at.

I am very confused how it could be so high.

This number seems very high considering we just bought the house a year ago, and we know buyer is also paying a title fee as well (we did that last year).

It is a little more work in the front end (ie. furnishings, finding 5 tenants, signing leases), but it is worth it!

A lot of expert level investors end up going that way at some point (retirement age, bored of flipping, tired of managing rentals, etc.). 

We're certainly seeing a very high demand on the investor side for loans in the area.

It was a dream purchase for me and my wife, but after joining Bigger Pockets and all the great folks on here helped my move into the STR game.We ended up with a standard 2nd home mortgage that was almost immediately transferred so we just started listing it on VRBO and AirBNB.

…I saw it on my end 🤷🏼‍♀️

You have a inside track to high paying STR/MTR residents, or something that is just out of the ordinary.   

The only issue I can see by initially circumventing your agent could potentially be "cut out" of the deal and/or their commission when you do end up writing an offer because the listing agent could argue that your agent was not "procuring cause" for your interest in the property since you contacted the listing agent directly and began negotiations.