Not worth saving a few bucks on a gamble. 

If that is too big of a lose to gamble, I would walk away.  

However it could be worth 170k-180 if everything was fixed and I think I could get it going as a functional rental property for the purchase price plus another 20k and some blood sweat and tears and maybe could get it reappraised in a year and do a heloc, but I could end up being 160k in when you factor in lost rent and is 10-20k inequity worth the gamble? 

Buying without title insurance is gambling. 

This it's another uncontrollable variable for you. 3)You can also dive deeper into the tenant's circumstance: do they simply not have enough extra cash to pay for the deposit right now?

Priced too high, rents are too low and investors do not want to gamble loosing a tenant right away, the leases are wonky or maybe there are bigger issues (Estate, Something wrong with the property etc).  

Appreciation is a bit of a gamble, can swing wildly up or down, and doesn't pay off until you sell the property.

If you use $40k to take a trip to Vegas and gamble your money away, then I would go with $300/mo. 

More than likely a potential for more profit, but must put in landscaping and fencing, maybe $40k.If the goal is to make as much money as possible in order to have a big down payment on the future CA build, should we stay where we're at given the capital gains hit, or take the gamble of hoping the other house gets us a bigger profit margin?

It is pure gambling at that point at the cost of your money.