However when refinancing I was not told until about a week before that closing that I couldn't ref Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

of them had some kind of issue (some completely minor where they almost didn't want to mention it to what I would consider catastrophic) yet 100% of them would recommend us to friends and family just based on our communication and customer service.  

Does anyone have any recommendations for local investor friendly title companies in Riverside, CA that do both assignment of contract and double closing?

Started work with a family member who did not complete itHired new contractor (Norman Downer) Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Unfortunately, that is too granular for OOS investors.So, we recommend investing via City of Detroit Neighborhoods.

Brian decided to sell his property and take the proceeds into his next primary, and I decided to rent my property out at a loss monthly.My loss isn't near $2k / month, but you may find a few reasons you weren't thinking about that would help impact your tough decision on renting or selling! 

You could find an attorney or agent - recommend negotiating a flat fee with either of them as pretty standard docs.

Then the contractor who did the install will say 'That's not my fault, they broke one of the lines' or 'it's a POS system from Amazon what did you expect, call the manufacturer', or 'I just installed it, I didn't warranty it', etc (especially if the tenant bought it and the contractor is just installing it)My thinking is if the owner approves/recommends the contractor to do the work, it's then their responsibility to make sure it's done right, and their liability thereafter because it's their property after all.

I wouldn't recommend taking on a HELOC on your primary unless you're going to do a fix and flip, BRRRR, or think you can get your money back very quickly on a short-term rental. 

If its a 1 car garage, id just recommend storage and thats it.