I also though she would retain an interest as my wife in case I die sooner than I hope to.Should I put my name only on deed to preserve financing options in the future or does it matter?

The thinking is that the break could help homebuilders preserve jobs and stay in business."

If there is a leak, which there probably is, you don't want to fire up the water and create a mess. believe it or not, the preservation companies don't do a through job sometimes.

If you can out much less down and preserve cash but pay a slightly higher recourse rate then it might be worth it.

I recommend paying the bills immediately to preserve utility service to your property. 

I also told him that due to my family being negatively affected by their actions, if it continued I would have to take legal action for preservation purposes, which I'd prefer neither of us have to deal with.

We wanted to preserve that, so a formal LLC was the right thing for us.Your family sounds like it will not appreciate this level of detail or planning.  

At some point, that will change and I'll be more interested in appreciation, solid returns and capital preservation.

Questions I have have related to property: we are in CA so tax basis of these properties is very low for current owners and we would like to preserve it. 

Practice preservation of capital.