I don't have a comprehensive experience  but I tried to find the least costly one for every step for me and applicants/tenants.

Feel free to shoot me a PM and i'd be happy to connect further to share experiences or insights!

Not sure how much of an impact this can realistically have.

I considered SFH where I'd rent out all the rooms and keep one to myself, but this seems risky since I'll realistically be away for months at a time and couldn't manage the unit/other tenants.Then I came across some listings that appear to be hotel rooms for sale, with basically the facilities I need (a bed, toilet, kitchen), a price point I can handle (270-500k$, I'd do 20% down), and fairly high HOAs (~1500$/m?).

We have tenants looking to buy a house, and we were considering selling them our rental with a lower interest rate than current market rates.Does anyone have experience doing this? 

I speak this from experience and would love to save you all the $ I have wasted in the past!

So the "story" of why you are buying a SFR rental but also renting yourself should be very clear in a Letter of Explanation.However, these cases can be looked at generally - do you have other investment experience - or is this first foray into real estate completely? 

Does anyone have first hand experience of this? 

House hacking will also give you some personal "property management" experience.

Your commission split will be higher in favor of the broker, BUT it's a good place to experiment and have your training wheels before branching off onto other brokerages that give you a better split.