Give them 24 hour, written notice that it is happening and do what you need to do. 

In your experience do you see people commonly attempting to offset ordinary income / W2 with syndicated losses, despite the above?

They'll just let the damage continue and say they never noticed the issue.

When looking at my tax return from my CPA, the losses and gains show up on Form 4797 (Part I for the losses and the gain in Part III).I noticed that the loss from Part I was shown on schedule 1 line 4. and helped zero my taxable income in Form 1040 line 15 (I had a negative total income on line 9 and 11).

(Noticed I didn't include architects in that list - from my experience most architects are great at building design but shouldn't try to do land planning.)If you have never done any development like this before than it would make sense to partner with someone who has (or flip it entirely) once you have a site plan of the property's potential.

"Is it a common practice to report it as a loss even though I fixed it out of my own pocket?" 

Also there are rules with past due notices etc. as well as it relates to this.If you were to damage someone's credit and then find out you were not compliant, you could open yourself to a lengthy and very costly legal battle. 

There is very little technical knowledge needed, but there is a lot of common sense needed.I would google "rental property investing for beginners" and see what you uncover.  

I think 1st year it will be real noticeable   2nd year slightly noticeable.  

These are all common pitfalls I see people when doing flips, BRRRRS or even multifamily.