Also a healthy chunk of our sales are cash.

The reason I am interested in this is because I don't have a ton of cash to put down but I want to acquire more properties even if it means paying a little bit of a higher rate and/or price. 

A construction lender may be willing to take out your current loan and use the home as additional collateral for the construction reducing or maybe even eliminating any cash needed for the development phase.

We rented to them as they had cash from selling their home and paid us first, last, and security plus 3 months of rent extra.  

You will never see 2.1% again in your life so before you move you should do all of the renovations with the equity so it's fully updated when you decide to leave so it actually becomes a strong cash flow property and not one you leave with stuff to do and it all comes up at once.

I think the customer service, amenities, and ability to make the stay stress-free for the guest are the biggest advantages once you are booked.

The highest benefit will be if you can rent their whole building even if it means taking over leases one at a time over a year or so.One of my partners went from self-managing a small complex doing 5-10 hours of management work a week to cashing checks and "catching up" with me once a month to see if there was anything they needed to be aware of.

I am looking for both cash flow and appreciation.

Some house hackers are okay with breaking even in the short term but the plan is to make some improvements to the property to get some cash flow in the long run.

Do not do cash for keys.