But if your husband is adamant about not leveraging your primary, you have to play the hand you are dealt.If you want to owner-finance your current primary, you'll gain cash flow (acting as the bank), but sacrifice the cash you want to use for another primary or investment property.

The Riviera Maya and Cancun area for example has has an 8 to 10% capital gain per year in the last 10 years, the politics are stable  and the country's international tourism is booming.

Are there any tried and true/ industry standard sites, forums, etc. where those looking to avoid capital gains look for investment properties?  

The knowledge I've gained has been invaluable.

The last couple of months I have begun to gain more knowledge about Real Estate investing and becoming more informative.

With the exception of finding the tenants (I use an agent) I manage all maintenance aspects of the property but am coming to a point where I might want to move on and considering doing a 1031 exchange to of course avoid Cap Gains and invest in another property closer to my primary residence.

If you have a larger portfolio & some infrastructure behind you it can be nice because you can off set your losses with all of your gains.

This opportunity has allowed me to not only gain great knowledge about parking, but commercial real estate as a whole.

Also less risky - the gains may not be as high but the losses also shouldn't be as bad if things go south. 

I'd do a 1031 exchange and defer capital gains.