Use that sales money to buy more stock. 

He is a contractor by trade and I am the sales and numbers guy to loosely define us.

Your plan can be something rough like: I own a piece of vacant land at (address), and I'm looking to rezone it from (current designation) to (new designation) in order to build a new construction duplex which will consist of  2 condos for sale, or 2 aparment rentals, eg.

CA has the highest sales tax rate in the country.

Have a 27k mortgage balance, sale price est at 415k.

I’m thinking 50k capital- Also- is there a tax lien sale to buy properties in Baltimore?

I used Roofstock to sell one of my rental properties in TX as their sales commission is lower than going through traditional sales channels. 

Cleveland, Baltimore, Toledo, Indy etc....You will see net population decreases in most of these areas but these are the areas where the prices are the lowest in the USA and come with rents that are very high when compared to the sales price.

LLCs are a legal tool, not a tax one.Transfer from personal name to LLC/Due On Sale ClauseIf one is transferring property title from personal name, a Grant/Warranty Deed would be drafted/recorded to transfer title.

With software, it's only as powerful as its user so some clients overcomplicate things and spend most of their time trying to "fix Quickbooks".The most successful and quick clients keep it simple or keep it to their comprehensive level.