Finally, your hunch is correct: when the syndication cycle closes, your past "free lunches" will have to be paid for, aka recapture.Here're some relevant posts from your favorite site:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/839015-are-sy...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51-tax-legal-issues-con...https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-professional-...  

Anyone reading this thread should make it a point to read your state's real estate contract practice book or at minimum pull a list of all C.A.R. forms from the internet and read the title of each form and pick a few to read line by line to begin understanding the contract language. 

I've been diving into real estate for about 10 years now, starting with reading all the books I could get my hands on.

While all the posts have at lease some legitimate points, I personally believe camp 1 is missing the opportunities present to protect assets under US law mostly because they don’t either understand asset protection, or don’t want to bother with it, so rather than do a proper evaluation they dismiss it as something that won’t work to justify their unwillingness to entertain the idea.Camp 2 is deluding themselves - which delusion has been enhanced by charlatans writing books, giving seminars, and selling packaged plans all of which either attempt to hide your assets or hide the ownership of your assets.  

Finally, are there any resources: podcasts, books, etc. that you'd recommend?

Start learning with books, podcasts, courses, networking, building a support system, and preparing for financing.

Start cutting the favoritism, the golden net's, remove hurdles for small business launch, remove corporate favoritism and watch things correct themself. 

I’ve educated myself with books like Rich Dad Poor Dad and real estate podcasts, and I know I’ll succeed.I’d love advice from others who’ve been in my shoes: Is it okay to start investing in a different area if one strategy isn’t working?

Get a development standards book so you can understand what and why a engineer should do something.

Buy than Build by Walker Deibel is a great book for Business purchasing, it talks about structure and evaluating.