If you see utilities increasing, is there a way that you can push this on to the tenant?

What would you do from here, pay them off sooner to increase the cash flow, or keep leveraging? 

Increasing job growth and a strong economy brings an ideal investment in these markets.

It establishes a base that's $40 lower, which all future rent increases are based on. 

We plan to remove them all to protect from tax increases on our current primary, but I am afraid that now that the other properties won't have homesteads, we may see skyrocketing tax bills and it will eat into already small cash flow from rental income.Does anyone have advice for how to handle this situation other than just increasing rent?

They may also require US credit history, although there are a handful that will not require a US credit report for an increased rate/ reduction in LTV. 

By adding the 3rd bedrooms, we were confident that it would increase rents and our valuation considerably.

I will mention that a hot tub could really increase the frequency of bookings. 

How about realizing that when you use the current property taxes of a property you are buying to calculate your per door profit that the following year your taxes will reset to what YOU paid for the property and will likely significantly increase your tax expense - which can take you from a positive cash flow to a negative cash flow on a low cash flow property… now you are paying your tenants to live in the property every month out of your W2 income  hoping for an appreciation play until rents hopefully increase.I could go on and on.  

Also, the tax benefits of the buy and holds help offset the increased tax consequences of fix and flips.