I'm brand new to real estate and reading up on the general transactions of property purchasing & selling, but it seems that there are non-physical pitfalls such as liens, titles, and possibly others. 

If it's for non-payment, and you served the notice properly then you'll probably get a judgement for a writ of restitution and in my county, your tenant will have 7-10 days before the set-out.

More than willing to put in work and meet people but at this point I feel its more likely I'll find a non local investor to partner with before i find a local one ya know.

Yes, absolutely yes, review items such as crime trends, median income, unemployment figures, non-farm payroll figures and growth respective of that, school system health, general GDP growth of the prospective market.

I live in California (non rent control area) I'm currently a landlord and now I have a month to month with my tenant .

.… Make sure you give proper notice to non renew his lease (verbal) according to your state landlord tenant regulations.

Fill it out correctly.Do not waste your time or effort to attempt to evict (N4) as it will fail and you will lose your application fee.For non payment of rent the board will rule in your favour every time....make sure you ask that the tenant reimburse your application fee.

I'm guessing because it's a non-taxable event VS selling it for the higher value down the road?

Non-consumer (e.g., you, the investor) receiving a L/O: all day long and twice on Sunday.Giving a Consumer a L/O: no-go.Search "Lease options" and "Texas" (and variations thereon) for lengthy discussions on why you don't do that.

Non for profits?