Plus because the seller still has a mortgage, so you wouldn't be able to transfer title to you without possibly triggering the due on sale clause. 

If your offer is a lowball offer, but you are willing to buy it-not transfer the sale, then she should present it to the sellers.

In Santa Clara County seller pays for escrow fees, title insurance, and county transfer tax - https://www.firstam.com/title/ca/resources/who-pays-what-in-california.htmlDepends on how you negotiate with your agent, you also have photography, staging, inspection report just to name a few.You bought a property, even though it's just land you still have to pay property tax on it.

I still get my AMAZING 28% COC, but would like to split all utilities to transfer those expenses to tenants.

You could self manage from long distance once you get transferred, but that is a lot harder. 

You will also want to make sure the utilities that they are responsible for (eg electricity) have been transferred to their name prior to them moving in.

I like to avoid having my clients portfolios hitting their return on page 1 of their schedule E via disregarded LLCs because Freddie/Fannie loans limit how much of the income you can count toward your debit/income ratio for future investments. 

The home was deeded over and mortgage never transferred and or applied for credit.

The government and large corporations use them a lot when transferring people from one location to another. 

@Maurice E.