There are short sales in there everywhere, everything's for sale and anything under contract is usually $100k or more below what the seller paid for the property.

I found the home as a for sale by owner by owner and it had a four car garage in a great location with a large lot.

I have a background working with banks, hedge funds and large infrastructure developers, and have been told my sales and negotiation skills could be leveraged in real estate, particularly in wholesaling.

Therefore, transferring our jointly owned investment property into my SMLLC would not trigger a due-on-sale clause?

Tech for most part is just a deployment item not innovation, utilizing tech to automate and do, more efficiently, what was done in antiquated manners. 

So I’m trying to see if I take that equity off the table and re-invest the sale proceeds in another market across more doors where we’ll see better appreciation, OR if we continue keeping it as a rental and work on principal pay down even though the rental price has been coming down and the home is not the easiest to fill because of the above average price for the C- to B neighborhood.Ultimately, my stated goal has been to build appreciation (over cash flow) by acquiring 1-4 doors per year for the next 10 years to allow my wife to retire (or be work optional) by the time she's 50.

You may want to involve an attorney for the purchase and sale and mortgage agreements though... 

That is why the surveyor, civil, geo tech, etc are almost always under direct contract with the owner and not the architect.

Of course as a seller I might counter with, No, please send your cancellation of sale paperwork and I’ll refund your EMD.

I would like to offer mine for $395k as a private sale.