Regardless of which entity owns the shares (You or the LLC) you will have to pay capital gains when you sell the shares (If there were gains on the shares). 

Tell them when they pay the rent, you need a copy of the utilities bills to ensure they are being paid or as you said you pay and they add it to their rent. 

Question for the tax pros out there.If someone inherits a home from a trust after death of the owner, and the home is their primary residence, does the two year period to exclude capital gains on the sale of a primary residence start from the date of death or the date the house was distributed from the trust? 

Additionally I tend to get first looks from developers, direct owners, and other brokerages before stuff is listed because they know me and that I screen buyers and make sure they have the ability to purchase and are not flakes and time wasters.  

Then they’re well advised to work in the real estate industry to gain hands on experience and (hopefully) be able to save part of their earnings to have some capital to invest.  

Hope this additional insight helps you in making your decision. 

No discounts there.If it was a ground level addition, I personally wouldn’t blink much.

I'm still thinking if this is the right move for me given the high property taxes there, hassles of out-of-state management, additional CA taxes, as opposed to simply investing in index funds (which might have more returns).

@Bill J Fay, I like the idea of asking for current projects or examples of work in addition to references.

With that kind of acquisition strategy, it might benefit to utilized a delayed purchase because most lenders struggle to underwrite deals in the span it takes for the auction to close.If you do it delayed, you can stay mostly liquid, then follow up the purchase with essentially a cash out refinance of the purchase price with rehab funds being put into an escrow account as well.Would be happy to explain further, but my clients that operate that way tend to prefer that method to keep getting their cash tied up too much. please explain further sounds phenomenal Jacolby,You purchase 100% in cash, then you do a refinance of the purchase price (usually about 80-85%) and treat it like you would if you were 'purchasing' the property again (so downside is additional closing costs) and add the rehab escrow to reimburse for the rehab being done.