Moved out to South Carolina with my family from California, had about 50+ units in Arizona but decided to shift focus to Columbia for cash flowing properties.

You are not avoiding taxes, just shifting the burden to earlier years. 

Those earnings are weighted in favour of the lender in the early life of a traditional mortgage, gradually shifting towards your benefit as the mortgage matures.The determination of which is the better investment of the two scenarios can only be answered by your expectations of returns on investment, and time commitment, and of course, if they are actually realistic.

I would also be cautious about syndications from an investment perspective due to the fact that you haven't changed the amount of time you need to dedicate to the space, but rather shifted the expertise needed to make the investment.

Its unfortunate that the egress issue delayed things long enough for the loan market to shift, but that doesn't make 30 years of theoretical expenses your damages in this situation. 

I've also been very active in the past in Canada and shifted my real estate activities to the US. 

Then make the offer and lose to the cash buyer with no contingencies and rinse and repeat until the market shifts or you score a great buy. 

I didn’t realize how hard it would be or that I would end up taking a shift in my career 12 years ago to specialize in investment properties.

All MLS/pocket listings, no marketing costsBuyers seem to be adjusting to the higher % and just seem content on making less on deals, or they are shifting focus to higher price deals.

Renting our house that we worked hard on with the idea of selling just is a big mind shift.