If it's an auction we have just dealt direct with the auctioneer.Maybe on your first deal you have an attorney do what you call "dirty work" but the best way to learn is to deal with the owners directly yourself, get permission to deal with the bank and execute the transactions on your own. 

Let's say you execute a P&S with the property owner and give them an EMD of $500. 

Both on the purchase end and in the execution of who is going to handle your properties.There are a lot of PMs that take on hard to manage C and D and do well with it because they know they are going to be able to charge all sorts of fees to corral these types of tenants. 

Oh, and the rogue syndicator who took advantage of us all was a darling of theirs (LU's) only a year before he "broke bad", and had subscribers from some of the long-time, experienced passive investors in the group, including a mentor or two and the executive vice president, herself! 

Anyone know of a lawyer that can execute at a fairly high level on Land Development deals?

This is reasonable if you execute the brrr strategy, or flip properties and use the proceeds from the flips to buy rentals.

Than I'd take it on, right the ship, run it correct and enjoy the margin until makes sense to execute on the option. 

We can filter by executive title, business size by sales, location, SIC code, etc. 

And short periods of time generally expose the investor to lots of extra risks including execution risk, refinance risk, interest rate risk, etc.

These are not sophisticated scams executed by criminal masterminds.