You mention doing your own maintenance and Repairs and capital improvements (roof, windows, furnace, water heater, etc). 

I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly, but basically the LTC you can expect will come from your background: credit, experience, etc.If you want to improve what you can get you can bring on a partner who adds to that background so you can be more fundable as a team.

I just heard from my employer that they may start laying us off in the next month or so if things don't improve. 

From 2012 to mid-2019 it was again my primary residence at which point it was once again converted to rental property.At this point I must recalculate the depreciation since in the intervening years I made $50,000 of improvements to the property. 

Did they describe the improvements that were done in that section?

So I would suggest working on increasing your income, credit score, decreasing debt, increasing industry experience, etc. so that you improve your chances of getting approved by an underwriter as you work towards your goal of obtaining 20% down. 

If the new apartments have more amenities at a lower price than you, then you may need to either lower your rents or improve your property to be competitive.

So what we've decided to do to reduce the bleed is to find a short-term tenant to rent to, and then put the house back on the market after things improve (will it be in a month?

CC&R's and rules do state clearly board needs to inspect and accept any application for ANY improvements. 

Your customers need to be constantly educated about the many advantages of doing business with you, trained to use your products more effectively, and taught how to make never-ending improvement in their lives."