Now, you are asking can you use a Gap/Transactional funder for the downpayment and closing costs? 

@Greg StrunakA good real estate accountant can save you thousands of dollars by leveraging entity selection and formation, tax deductions, cost segregations, bonus depreciation and tax planning.I recommend finding an accountant who specializes in real estate taxation, business taxation, financial planning and tax planning.You may want to consider working with your accountant remotely to expand your options.I would also recommend looking for a accountant willing to work with you throughout the year.

We have been working to be extremely conservative with our estimates but with this being our first go at this, any additional expertise is greatly appreciated! 

The actual estimate is that less than 25% of the nations homeless people live in California, not 51%.

When in Due Diligence have a thorough inspection and get estimates for any work that is needed now and potentially in the next 3-5 years. don't forget about the tax benefits to doing the work upfront.

You are best off to raise the rent and give the tenant the option to stay.Also, I hear a lot on here that "rents should be", "the potential rents are"... make sure that you do your due diligence when calculating potential rents because most new owner OVER estimate them.

I then ran a different ad and the cost was only 6 cents per contact. 3 cents higher than FB lowest estimate.

If your estimated rent from a property pays off the Mortgage + Maintenance + Property Tax + Insurance.

That is roughly 9% rent price appreciation over the original rent estimates. 

Note that Sec8 comes with added costs & issues due to bureaucracy and state of the HUD departments in the area.