Other investors such as many which I have represented prefer an established neighborhood where I can tell them how many, and which homes are owner occupied vs. not as a neighborhood with more owner occupied homes means less competition for rental homes.

My recommendation would be to get an attorney to represent you in this transaction - but the only way I would do this deal would be as a traditional note and mortgage. 

The plaintiff argued that "last" is undefined in a lease that automatically renews and effectively represents a 2nd month of security deposit.

pg 10"From the Fund’s inception in or around February 2018, the Defendants, both individually and through project managers at NRIA, represented to investors and prospective investors that NRIA was a solvent, profitable business that generated significant cash flow, separate and apart from investor fundraising.

Do I need to be represented by a lawyer before appearing before the judge for this matter?

I seem to be leaning to Penn Mutual, but I see they do not have a sales department; rather, I must first find a financial representative to perform the contract. 

When hiring a Realtor to represent a buyer, the buyer and agent will negotiate the commission beforehand as part of the buyer representation agreement.3.

And he actually won because I allowed him to represent me on my purchase so he actually made roughly $15,000 on it, and it was his first transaction as a new agent.

We made a terrible error when we started calling them leaders and stopped calling them representatives.  

Notably, upon request for references, the contacts provided were associated with Gmail accounts, despite purportedly representing corporate entities involved in real estate transactions.