We're getting good response rates and even made offers, but nothing officially closed this route (yet). 

The reason is because there’s a law in California that prohibits County Assessor’s Offices from posting the home address of any elected or appointed officials (i.e. members of the legislature, City Attorneys, District Attorneys, Public Defenders, Police Chiefs and Sheriffs, federal judges, etc) on the internet.

The question I have is when I bought the home I only lived in it for 1 1/2 to 2 years before I got permanently stationed somewhere else, during these last 8 years I have rented it out and have not lived in it, will I have to pay capital gains tax seeing how I didn’t live in for the last 2 out of 5 years or am I protected because I had official orders and had no choice?

One tip - make sure you have all the terms of the loan in writing, even if it's not officially notarized or attorney drawn up paperwork.

But neighborhoods can change quite quickly from one block to the next, and these aren't quite close enough for me to feel confident that they're truly comparable.One thing that jumped out at me while I was looking at the above county records is that it's officially recorded as a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom, NOT a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom (like the Realtor.com listing says it is). 

Tenants like this are already skittish during a sale, and getting them to sign another official document can be problematic, especially if English isn't their first language. 

Otherwise, I probably won't be able to get enough rent money to cover my expenses or even come close (I expect expenses like mortgage, PITI, etc. to be at least $2100 / month on a $300K house, but I'm a beginner so I may be wrong).Apparently it can also take a year or more to get your house officially zoned as a duplex and can cost a lot of money in paperwork and attorney fees to get it done.

A reminder, when we military have occupied a primary for 2 years of of 10 years, we can exclude capital gains on the sale of that house: If you or your spouse are on qualified official extended duty in the Uniformed Services, the Foreign Service or the intelligence community, you may elect to suspend the five-year test period for up to 10 years.

You can print this one on your computer, no need for the “official” printed forms.W-9 asks them to enter their name, address, and tax ID – which can be a SSN, ITIN (for people who are not permanent residents) or EIN (business tax ID).

Do they remain to be tenants until they are officially given notice to vacate?