Yes you could your entitlements separately if you decide the first home no longer meets your needs and you'd like to move.  

In A and B neighborhoods, it's hard to get rents to meet the mortgage, taxes, and home insurance and still make reserves for maintenance and capex and prop mgmt., which is why it's hard to invest in rental SFR in those areas.

While I am still learning, I plan on attending local REI meet ups in the South Florida region so I can get to know like minded individuals who share the same goals in real estate investing.  

You are better off meeting him in person and walking him through the rehab during the walkthrough.

Very often I meet real estate investors who chose to go with a $200 tax return filing accountant who costed them thousands and tens of thousands of dollars in mistakes like miscalculated depreciation, missed deductions, miscalculation of capital gains when selling the property and so on.I understand you don't want accounting fees to eat all of your profits, but I simply encourage to factor what you're getting from your accountant, weigh it against the price and find the combination that works for you.

If your tenant has a valid lease, and is paying rent on time, and meeting all of the other parameters of the lease, you are most likely stuck with her until the lease runs out.  

An idea is planning an event for any employees interested to meet about buying real estate.

The former is active business income, and the latter is not business income, and is also sheltered by the section 121 exclusion, assuming you meet the requirements.

Any RE meetings/events happening near downriver MI?

You can meet them at local real estate meetups (Google "mytown real estate investor association").I would say you're off to a great start by knowing exactly what you want.