I am an out of state investor from California.

There is an abnormally low amount of new construction occurring on the coast in comparison to the demand and the existing inventory can be quite dated, especially for those coming from areas like California.

Quote from @Diyan Yap: Have you thought about AirBnB, they can visit/stay with you while they rent it and earn income. 

Want an excuse to visit my son there.

For appreciating CA properties this could easily be a 7 digit step up in value but i would think in all CA markets would be significant.  

It also gets treated differently in Texas vs CA vs AZ.

The seller is out of state and even visited the project a few times to check on the progress which I think helped him feel good about the whole deal as well. technology made the whole process a lot easier in the interim.

The condo I'm selling in CA could sell for approximately $600k, and I was thinking of rolling that into 2 condo/townhomes valued at about $250k each, then doing DST for the remaining around $100 for the 1031.

Quote from @Hector Romero: Hello all, I am new to the community as well as being the lead in real estate investments.My sister and I currently hold 3 properties next to each other in Riverside County, California (we'd like to get them in an LLC but we're unsure how that may affect financing them).

I'm an investor (STR properties), realtor, and own a construction company near Texas A&M in the Bryan / CS area but travel to the 903 frequently to visit family.