Perhaps the numbers will turn out to be much better, but I'd be careful to not let your personal love for the area lure you into an investment that you might someday loathe due to ill performance coupled with management headaches.

.: How could you afford a $3k plus rental and making an issue of an extra hundred dollars? 

Usually, tenants are receptive to the idea but I also wonder if tenants with a higher credit score care less about this feature than ones with a lower credit score who are actively working to rebuild their credit?

Who cares?

You could post photos of a similar asethetic, but be very careful and make it very clear these are placeholder photos. 

The system is what's really broken:1) S8 should have a time limit - get free housing to get your life in order and move on.2) S8 should have strong requirements for taking care of the home taxpayers are paying the rent for. --- We haven't seen a S8 inspection report in over a decade that required a tenant to fix damages they obviously caused.

I took a few years out of work to take care and spend time with a family member whp passed, so I have only been working for a year now.

For example, instead of an initial 6-month lease at $1,200/month, and then re-renting it in the summer with a higher rental rate, you could market it as a 16-18 month lease term (again, great suggestion by Tim) at $1,600/month with a "1 Month of Free Rent" special which you could either divide evenly across just the first 4-6 months of the lease, or prorate over the entirety of their lease term.  

For long-term strategies, a cash-out refinance is usually more advantageous, as it preserves ownership and offers fixed terms.To proceed, start with a professional appraisal to confirm the home’s value, compare refinance terms with traditional lenders, and carefully scrutinize shared-equity program terms to ensure they align with your financial goals.

I haven't done a HELOC recently, but when I did, they didn't care about the W2 since I already owned the home.