I apologize for my ignorance this is the beginning of the road for me.So I think my general order of tasks should go like this:1.

He offered the land to me at cost, along with his counsel.I also have a connection to a local contractor with a good reputation, a positive history of partnering with investors, and knowledge of the area.I'm cautiously optimistic, but I realize that I'm ignorant.

You could have plead ignorance, but now that you know, it would be fraud and you absolutely will lose this battle....you got the money, the buyer got nothing.  

@Paul StewartDoesn't really change the sales price.Example (ignoring closing costs):$75,000 house.

This ignores two common situations:1.

Ignore current condition and rents to a degree.

Apologies in advance for my absolute ignorance with this stuff.1) We plan to purchase all cash in our names then transfer the property into an LLC that we haven't created yet, less for liability and more for tax purposes (our accountant vaguely suggested we should start an LLC that does really anything so that we are able to write off more home office, travel and equipment expenses that we can no longer do since recent tax changes).

Ignorance is bliss. 

I believe there is a “foreign entity” (forgive my ignorance) type approval process we would need to complete to be able to use TX LLC in Arkansas.

So I think they know this and have decided to just ignore our emails and request to pay the outstanding invoice (which they would be getting away with much less than the damages they have caused and put on us).