Many of my friends are at the point in life where they are planning to buy their first home or upgrade their current home. 

If the property is upgraded to what the market will allow, then you won't have much of an opportunity for forced appreciation.

The building is slowly being upgraded to luxury style apartments (well, luxury for the area, not luxury by real-estate terms).

My parents are interested in having a solar company install panels in their home, especially since the company may upgrade their electrical in the process.

Same with an upgrade like a fridge.

Will need around 30K worth of repairs and upgrades.

All upgrades and expenses come from the IRA too.

Another could be, most everybody is using granite for their kitchens in your area so you upgrade to quartz stone which only costs you say $200 more per slab but now your finishes are nicer and different (in a good way) than your competition.Curb appeal, kitchens, and master bed/bath is what sells homes and open floor plans are going to appease the masses over anything else. 

Sell my house to the LLC at FMV   - I'll have the LLC buy the house at FMV with a new loan (putting down 20% of the FMV)   - I'll also need to put some money in to do upgrades and repairs, prep for renting, etc ($30-40k)   - I will need the equity from the original mortgage to buy a new primary residence, so I will only be leaving the 20% FMV Is this the right way to start? 

Since buying the home I've put money into the house and have upgraded it most years.