Since they made landlords pay interest on security deposits greater than one month's rent, we had to quit doing pet deposits and do a non-refundable pet fee instead.

In addition, For your Ira, You should have filed IRS form 8606 maintaining your basis or contributions each year and your accountant may know. 

I inherited all of their security deposit. $850.00.

My town website has an online search for Land Records So I can find notices of foreclosures, notices of liens, warranty deeds, mortgage documents etc. the day they are filed.

With 10 years of residency, its likely there will be significant work and little that you can charge against the tenants security deposit. 

Therefore setup a good filing systemGet a good answering system…Vonage Phone is one good exampleStamps.com is great for keeping track of letters you send your tenants.QuickBooks is a Landlords best friend.

You also may have to file a CA nonresident income tax return and pay taxes on the income earned from CA sources (i.e. real estate located in the state of California). 

Hello @Gregory Evans,An other strategy I would look into is to use a Master Lease to secure the property.

I am looking to convert that into full time rental property and also I want to void paying the Capital Gains Tax (500K for Married filing jointly), I have considerable equity in the home, I don't want to sell the property to others now and want to hold it for few more years.From the Article below by @Brandon Hall, I see that I can sell this SFH to an LLC I own.

I do this because my credit doesn’t allow be to secure a loan directly with this bank yet.