A handyman landlord working with minimal help can do good work in these places, stay on top of things, and keep perhaps ten of these tight little ships running with practically zero outside labor costs eating into his profits or excessive time commitments, while he does modest, leisurely little spec rehabs and occasionally larger live-in flips anywhere he finds deals, accelerating his timeline to  pay off his street of moneymakers. 

How to mitigate the risk of them up and leaving is to collect larger security deposits or have them pay a couple months rent.

Does that sort of thing happen here?

What is your strategy for growing and what do you think I could do to grow larger/faster?

It should all be gathered by an escrow or title company and documents, money, etc correctly sorted out and finalized (closed).

I personally think it would take a larger macro economic shock to affect our healthy real estate market. 

We are also interested in a pool so the existing market is somewhat smaller than normal.We would like to rent out our current home and upgrade to a nicer / larger home if possible.

I have seen a few lower appraisals but they are mostly from larger corp America banks.  

Bank of America seemed to have low rates but they were super complicated and to get the best rates you have to take a larger initial draw which means high monthly payments for at least 3 cycles.

If you don't have the cash to purchase a larger multi family your best bet would be to purchase in some type of group funding.