Charlotte is a great market (though it is seeing a lot of new construction this year!). 

IF you have a recorded mortgage and it was a normal sale handled by a title company and the buyer wanted title insurance then you would have had to be paid off and signed a mortgage release or a reconveyance deed.One way or the other if you want some constructive help you need to clarify what you actually did..

Investing in new construction can make sense here given the strong appreciation and you end up leveraging basically the same amount of cash and have an asset that's not 60+ years old or more. 

The tenant is a civil/construction engineer.

You still need to get the debt and equity but once you're open / finished with construction you can get grants to reimburse you. 500K-2M is typical for projects like yours.

The city recently inspected the property and determined that a converted garage was poorly constructed.

Conservatively estimating new construction costs as $300/sq foot, the new duplexes could cost about $600,000 each to build (plus interest costs).

If you don’t mind sharing, did you complete the construction of a modular ADU in Anaheim?

I'm getting weddings and events on weekends booked well in advance and work crews working on new construction booking mid-week. 

My background is in construction and entitlements.