@Sam HendricksenMultifamily is super competitive in this area and you have a huge advantage over your "competition" with the fact that you are owner occupying as most deals nowadays hardly cash flow. 

. - Expect buyer competition.

Collect cleaning fees and put more of the booking fee on the traveler if your rentals are in demand and it's the market isn't overly competitive.

Sometimes 5 in the case of 9% LIHTC deals but all the way up to 15 as I’ve seen in 4% deals.  9% is competitive meaning there’s only a certain amount of projects awarded each year by your states HCR.  4% is not competitive and is usually more appropriate for large projects because 9% will get allocated to projects of smaller size so as to spread the benefit.  

Does anyone have any advice for people starting out in this competitive field?

Obviously I want to keep my costs low but still want to spring for amenities that would give me a competitive edge compared to other rentals.

This will give you one critical piece of information, that it may take X days to get an offer and sell, and the second item will give you what your competition is right now.

Naturally, they are your competition and the daily rates need to be taken into account.

As others have noted credit unions are generally competitive on HELOC's. 

Check Furnished Finder, Zillow, as well as AirBnb and VRBO (30+ day stays) to see what sort of competition is in that specific market.