It sounds like, from the issues that you're having, that you might need to reset the town. Without a mod, here's what you do (keep in mind you'll loose any relationships that are outside your own household, however, with the testingcheatsenabled turned on, you can simply move the relationship bar with the appropriate people to get it back to the way is was.
So first, go into Edit Town and save both homes to the library. Then save a copy of your household to the library - just the people (just playing it safe here). (Note: If you have other family members in the town that you want to save, you'll need to move them in with the family you're saving before you save them to the library. You're going to be moving ALL of the family members to a new copy of the town).
Then sell all properties except your home one (you'll get them back).
Now, save that game and then go to the main menu.
Start a new game using the same town (or if you feel that Riverview has been too glitchy, then try another one (but I wouldn't recommend Bridgeport (if you have it) cause it's really laggy if you don't have at least one mod). Once you have that game started you'll want to use edit town again and then place your house on the lot that you'd used before (I'm assuming you built something yourself, if not, you can bulldoze what is on the lot and place the home you saved from the library).
Now, move your family in from the library to their home and start playing. Before you even try to deal with the extra properties ensure that everyone goes to work properly, etc.
I hope this helps and I know it seems complicated at first, but it's the best way, without a mod, to basically reset your town. I haven't heard of Riverview being glitchy, but I haven't played it much myself. Maybe some other simmers can comment on that world specifically if they've had these issues. I know certain worlds have had some rabbit hole issues due to placement (they need a minimum depth of 4 spaces from the entrance clear or the sims can't enter).
