I like your idea of "partnering up" to bring more scale to a pm company.

Single familyPros - available at every price point - easy to understand - comps are relatively easy to determine - numerous exit strategies available - less complex to rehab- less complex to BRRRR- better likelihood of natural appreciation - Less turnover - Fewer tenant headaches- Tenants pick up most/all of property expenses (also, no common areas)- Tenant more involved in upkeep- More financing optionsCons - a lot of competition (regular buyers, other investors)- inherently slower to scale than multi familyMulti familyPros- scale up is built in - more cash flow vs amount invested?

It's actually a lot less risky than doing the long term lease route and you can scale your portfolio much faster.

@Kahla Henry ... definitely think about what kind of processes and systems you need to scale this into a viable business.

MFH can be a bit easier to cash flow (at scale) but they are rarely on the market and if they are its not for long.

Need a couple HMLs in place for scale-ability purposes unless pockets are deep of course.  

I did not want to be forced into something that just because I was trying to save tax and used as true cash equity on my balance sheet it enabled me to scale my business in a different direction.but for this case were you have an elderly guy retiring.. trying to come up with complicated ( at least to him) tax schemes can be a tough sell..

It gives me less properties to manage and less roofs to worry about , plus they scale quickly.

If you and your partners look to jump into the HML space in order to scale effectively and have questions about what that looks like I would be happy to discuss. 

Perhaps you can begin with a small BRRRR project (1-4 units) and scale up from there.