You can also do an audit of your “hotel” to see how it compares to others in your market in terms of design and amenities to fully maximize revenue.

They have much stricter reporting requirements (audited financials and semi annual reports), as well as a much lower barrier cost of entry.

It's true, Banks and Credit Unions will not provide DU's as they are audited much more than brokers and lenders. 

You will spend $10-$20k to put the PPM together and then if you do audited financials that will run you five figures per year as well as tax returns are not cheap with all the K-1's.

Wanna be gurus, usually salespeople with little real estate investing experience, “audition” with the seminar companies akin to a screen test” in Hollywood.  

This is better in some ways, as I have the backups in the event of an audit and don't have to rely on my software vendor to still exist in 7 years. 

While you may get a 199A deduction, you are paying a high tax rate.If we are talking about REIT's listed on an exchange, there are additional overhead costs as you mentioned - You have to get audited financial statements and also comply with certain SEC laws.

My accountant says it's hard to do and an easy audit.

Private placements have no investor protections, audits, and public disclosures...they are the wild west of investing. 

It sounds like I'm begging for an audit lol.