This is just the start of a larger decline in a company raising money from investors without proper SEC fillings that is starting to not pay investors back.

Does it make sense to cheap out over the few thousand dollars it will cost to go through a proper escrow and title process?

Hi Shawn-Congratulations on starting out on your real estate investing career.You have a question about whether it is good to have your real estate license or not as an investor and you are leaning toward multifamily investing.I personally think having your real estate license is helpful as an investor.Having your real estate license allows you to work with other investors to help them build their portfolios which helps expand your network while being productive, you can research market value more effectively, find out about deals before they are listed, and of course it allows you to collect the commission on purchasing any listed property.To Your Success!

Once you decide which type of exchange you want to do, you could then narrow down your product / company. 

I am interested in hearing about your experience traversing the 'green standards' new construction and permitting process in KCMO proper.

This can help you greatly with the additional depreciation.Ultimately, med to large MF and small 2-4s are totally different products. 

Or they could never get to the latter, because they never had the beginning characteristics which include the former to develop properly. 

As someone who deals and talks to real Private Lenders (small shops run by a guy who lends his own capital and doesn't use big box), they have a hard and fast business model that produces the rate of return they need to remain profitable and curb the risk on their cash.So the best product for a budding fix and flip investor is the bridge loan which includes acquisition money and construction money. 

If an asset is throwing off a certain yield that is not commiserate with it's risk, then investors will then begin paying more for that asset, thus decreasing it's yield....or start paying less for the asset which would increase it's yield, until it was at the proper risk/return rate to produce the yield that is truly reflective of it's risk.The problem is novice real estate investors get the risk/reward correlation backwards.

Without proper boots on the ground, your property will never get the proper love & respect it truly deserves (I get it.