I do feel that rents are probably going to catch up over the next 3 - 5 years.

(As AZ and your current state will fight over who gets to tax your gains with the federal government.)I have to throw most of the shade on your horrible tax guy/cpa who didn’t tell you renting it out was a $50-$100k mistake. 

I insist that you complete the Task you were hired for with NO further compensation and I've also written a formal complaint to the "Board of Bar Overseers" over this matter!

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. 

My idea is to put 20% down on a $1 million property, with the remaining $800,000 paid off over 8–10 years, depending on how much yearly income the seller would want.I’ve seen a lot of discussions about using seller financing for investment properties, but not much when it comes to primary residences.

But, as my wife and I have done this over the past 5 years, we have found it moves less and less each time, and that we are essentially living the life we envisioned 5 years ago when we started this process. 

When you say you want to prioritize cash flow over equity, you want to watch out for people honing in on that and selling you "good cash flow" deals which will be in D neighborhoods and will come with high capital expenditures and harder tenancies.

I tend to shy away from homes over ~20 years old to buy and hold for long term renting.

That also made me hesitant about Cashiers, meaning I worried that the mindset would spill over.

We have funded over 4000 loans nationwide.