To align with community property laws and avoid legal or financial complications, consider forming a jointly owned LLC with your wife as a member.

My question is really around the legality and process of taking back the garage from the existing tenants for this project.

We represent several developers in Cedar Park, they all developed for owner user + rentals, but I'd say the main thing from a legal perspective is ensuring good GC and sub agreements.

You will need a licensed TX attorney to oversee the legal documents, you need escrow officers and transaction managers and business development/marketing.

In the meantime, put the tenant who broke their lease on notice that they have violated the terms that they agreed to in the lease which is a binding legal document.

Do not rely on it as legal advice.

My down payment will be just as much as he still owes on the property, some small expenses, and maybe some prepaid taxes.

I don't have any pending legal issues at the moment, but I've been thinking I should find a lawyer that I can go to for questions, to review documents, leases, etc so that I can have confidence that I'm not making any silly mistakes that will get me into trouble later on.

Post in her local communities legal section.  

However, there are substantial legal risks associated with doing this and most people who go this route have no idea they're taking them.