Personally, I hate cash for keys and I can hardly think of a reason that I would do it - BUT I am in a state where it's pretty simple to get non-paying bums gone.

It really depends on your goals in the long term, personal resources and what you need.

Let's compare a $250,000,0 loan today versus two years ago.In America, the average person has a credit score of around 715 you’re looking at around 6.6% on a conventional 30 year loan.

Even the units I own personally (under and LLC) the tenants do not know that I am the owner.

Finding turnkey deals that cashflow well is EXTREMELY difficult especially if you are looking for ones that you like personally.

BTW, you get what you pay for - the cheaper ones are robotic/scripted while the good ones (more expensive) have presence, personality and situational awareness -  which helps with appointment setting. 

I'm looking to do a personal project of mine where i'll be building my own personal residence and decided to do it with just straight cash, and the idea was to cash-out refinance the property after it's completed.

It sounds like you want a personal loan from a bank.

How do you let the applicant know that despite paying for the credit and background check them may not be choosen without making it seem like it is a personal thing?

Unemployment will tick up heavily end of Q1 into Q2 and that's when the realization of this consumer debt: personal savings disaster that's been brewing will show up.