Why not take his name off the LLC and put it in your name now while the LLC has $0 of value (or whatever nominal amount your articles of organization or operating agreement say that you contributed)?

To newer investors, they may rely on their agents to act as the Chief Investment Officer, effectively thinking the agent will bring them only perfect deals that meet their investment objectives.  

Lee's organization has made several other pitches for sales since then but I have not spent another penny! 

I mean, he probably wouldn't describe it that way, but that's what he was doing.It takes time to grow organically, and it is frustrating and painful at times.

Many other investors have asked themselves (and others this question) but what I believe it ultimately comes down to is what are your goals (how much money you'd like to make), are you physically able to manage it yourself and do you have the right organization and systems in place to do it on your own. 

While I don't object to spending money to do one's due diligence, I don't know if $500 is called for when you can get very high quality syndication groups/meetups/information for free.

Donating money to large (FEMA, Red Cross), local organizations or Go Fund Me pages would be the quickest way.

Once you get organized and get the process down, placing tenants shouldn't be such tedious work.

When somebody asks for advice, I always try to put myself in their shoes and understand who they are and what their objectives are so I tried to do that with you with the little amount of info I could garner from your profile.

For example, if she can't visit the property, is she good at record keeping (so everything is organized at tax time) or finding vendors, comparing product prices, finding free or low cost items on Facebook marketplace to improve the rental)3. emergency fund.