It may surprise you, but we have always operated under the premise that renewals make us more money than new leases.

Understood 

They allow you to include up to 6 months of rent payments in the loan if you are unable to occupy the premises during the renovation.Just to be complete, it's also worth mentioning that both the VA and USDA have renovation loans.

The premise of those opportunities are based on you living there for an extended amount of time.

Honestly, I never fully understood what they meant—until recently.I’ve been diving into some larger-scale real estate projects, specifically in commercial properties and multifamily development.

This was Ukrainian village, wicker, Humboldt park (this one I never understood since it’s not near a train), west loop, university village, little village, and Pilsen.  

In my experience, the good ones are expensive, typically require a subscription, and sometimes they even do a physical inspection of your premises to verify it is a legitimate person / business in US.

I never understood why people would have a flip, boost the value by tens of thousands of dollars, then sell it as opposed to keeping the equity and putting a tenant in there. 

If I understood what I was getting on the back end I would have done this sooner.

Quote from @Jake Andronico: Yep, understood.