My husband still not convinced we should proceed with Code Enforcement, as he thinks it could escalate into something worse.  

I can reserve the proceeds from the sale and be patient about a good deal, or be time constrained and have to follow 1031 rules and find a new purchase within 45 days.  

Proceed cautiously! 

Consult a lawyer if you are unsure how to proceed.

That being said though, if you are moving to a more risky career for money then I would proceed with caution.

We want to take the proceeds from those sales, which will be between 85-115K and roll the funds into 2-3 properties.  

If the project looks feasible you would then proceed to getting an option to purchase all the properties contingent on getting all of the approvals and density your looking for.

They were making the place unlivable for their neighbors, due to me being a poor landlord and not addressing the problem.If I had proceeded with eviction, as was my right, I would have had a legal battle, not gotten my property back for at least 30 days, and likely had a huge mess to deal with.

Something you might try is setting up a key word alert for "Savanah GA" and then proceed to network people who mention it on the site, (with key word alters you will get notified every time it's mentioned by someone in the forums).

You could set "HVAC" or the name of your particular area as a keyword and then get notified when someone mentions that particular word, then proceed to ask them your question in a private message.