If you would like to avoid taxes, another option is to take out a mortgage or home equity line of credit against the property and use that money as a down payment to buy another property and now have 2 rental properties generating monthly income .Hope this helps Judah 

If your in a good shape financially and can apply a down payment to avoid PMI, I would.  

To my understanding, the case is that 20% down regardless of property type allows the borrower to avoid private mortgage insurance.

I assume I can avoid to be considered a "security" if I am borrowing for own use.- Given the very low rate I am simply considering paying off existing higher-rate mortgages on my rental properties, essentially "refinancing" at a lower rate. 

I avoid foundation issues, mold, termites etc. until I get a little more experience  under my belt.

This way your assistants can instantly see what routes have been driven to avoid virtually driving down those streets.

My understanding is that if I do this, for each of my two rental properties, then I can avoid capital up to $250K (I'm single).

This will also avoid the sticker shock you'll likely experience with a GC 

Not interested in rolling over to SD-IRA so is it better to pull the funds out now (avoiding increasing taxes in the future) or purchase SFH ($150k or less with cash flow) with hard money and then cash out refi ?

They are wondering if he can transfer the house to their names prior to the transition in order to avoid this (and are there time limits?).