My wife is from Japan and all her friends and family want to buy brand new mansions or SFHs because interest rates are very very low.

The luxury market of San Francisco is also known as a boom and bust cyclical market. 

People will literally pay more to take care of less (newer, more "luxurious").We would definitely be buying this home to live in - what did you mean by "house hack a multi-family property"?

Of course you are not going to eliminate any of these restrictions before closing because they run with the land.Let's say you are buying a property and your plan is to tear down the existing home and build a mansion.

Appraisers hired by bank are trained to be ultra conservative to protect the banks interest.

In Texas, it's about $20 to $50 in filing fees to change ownership, whether that was a $20,000 unimproved lot or a $10,000,000 mansion. 

A lot of threads on this topic recommend Allure Luxury Vinyl Plank from Home Depot.

Although I know a few class A luxury apartment complexes that offer Section 8 type programs.

1-bed apartment building unit won't be $800 unless it's really fancy.Downtown luxury rentals are exception but it's a different market.However, you still will feel the difference between $3-4K rentals and $800's - PM will be much more time consuming. 

How about a good luxury house hack?