I am in the process of buying a single family rental, and will be inheriting the tenant, who is on section 8.

No good property management companies want a random two-family for the most part.

We took them to arbitration, but they did not participate and we found out they closed their offices and I believe the owners are no longer residing in Florida.

Starting with single-family and small multi-family properties is a smart choice, especially out of state.

The down payment is 25% down for single family residences and 30% down for 2-4 units.

There is a "sponsor exemption" but that only allows an unlicensed person to raise money but it cannot be more than 50% of their duties and the pay they receive cannot be based on how much they raised.If you have never raised $, a family office will be off the table as they typically want the company to ahve atleast $50-$100M in assets. 

The holidays are a magical time, full of family gatherings, laughter, and... real estate deals?

I mean, you can leave this here but you would get significantly more responses in the multi-family forum. 

I'm aware that I'll have to talk with a zoning board to rezone a single family lot to a multifamily lot.

Investment Info:Single-family residence wholesale investment.