California can be tough!

Then consider training up someone in one of the homes to take over management.Great start, you just have to continue the plan.Denton is often tough to find the right house or right situation. 

(i.e. labor, materials, etc) What are the values of homes?

Tenant base is tough.

His training material is very much worth it and he is the only Real Estate teacher that I know of that gives his students his direct phone line to call and ask him questions as needed.

Albeit, when we building materials started to increase significantly, that complicated things and we had to just keep going.You will lose MORE if you sell a half-built property, than if you take it to completion. 

However, I have been trying to figure out possible creative financing options to build more without having to sell, but I cannot seem to find a lender willing to do 100% down on land and construction even though the LTV would be below 50% since I can basically build for costs of material plus minimal labor by doing almost all of it myself , with a little help here and there. 

They ask for 50% upfront, material costs (or combination), and they prefer cash. 

Without being in the situation it's tough to say for sure what exactly the PM should've done.

Managing out-of-state rentals can be tough, but having a solid local property manager helps a ton.