The reality is that the insurance landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years, and underestimating those expenses can be a costly mistake for syndicators and investors alike.Insurance Escalators: A Changing RealityYour point about the outdated assumption of a 3% YOY increase in insurance is spot on.

We've made mistakes along the way, but nothing so detrimental it put it us out of business.

Over time of that LL making mistakes he is gaining much knowledge and hopefully it turns to wisdom and eventually he is helping others.  

Remember that you can only get one home equity loan per year, you can only have one home equity loan on your home, and you cannot convert your home equity loan into a different type of loan, so choosing the wrong loan can be an expensive mistake that you cannot quickly fix.Time Factors: If you need money quickly, don’t forget the schedule for closing a home equity loan, and make sure you will have time to complete the process, close on the loan, and wait through the cooling off period before you have access to the money.

And someone jumping into this as a complete newbie can expect that they have a decent chance of making some expensive newbie mistakes.

Just because you don't make any money on them, doesn't mean you aren't responsible, along with the source of the actual plans, for any mistakes in the plans, or even any mistakes in construction from lack of info, misunderstanding, or just plain stupidity of the builder/user of the plans.

Learn from my mistakes and properly screen your tenants and you should be ok.

Side question: How can you help ensure a good, timely, mistake free lending process? 

It's a very common mistake where an investor sold and bought properties and then when it's tax time they find out they didn't do the right process to actually qualify as a 1031 exchange.  

I wasn’t sure if i am making a huge mistake or forgot to consider certain important detail such as a getting an LLC.