If property was free and clear, then the owner of the property should get the fair market value first from proceeds of the sale.What was the purpose to do 50/50 and how do you legally wrote that house contribution?

You can find what reasonable rents are for the property and then compare it to the market's cap rate to figure out a good estimate. 

I am happy with it but any opinion I have should be discredited somewhat simply because I have never used competing software platforms (Buildium, Appfolio, TenantCloud, Yardi, etc) so I really don't have much to compare it to. 

If each LLC has leases themselves, what is the purpose the property management LLC?  

3rd home don't have much room to cash out compare to expense which will occurred to do this refinance. 

There are some good opportunities here, imo, but I'm afraid the environment combined with the crime rate will stop people from renting or buying here.Is a whole seller someone with a different strategy compared to the fix and flip guys?

Keep some documentation that makes it clear you used HELOC for business purposes (timing if HELOC with timing if expenses paid).

From what I understand, it is recommended to have the investment property under the LLC for protection purpose.

Does this only apply when you have an existing tenant for the purpose of preventing a landlord from forcing someone out of their property by raising rent?

The goal of this partnership is to purchase distressed properties and fix them up  for buy and hold purposes.