Send via certified mail.As for your post-mortem, assuming the money is gone and it is not worth your time and effort to keep fighting for it, I personally am pretty biased against crowdfunding sites like SmallChange, CrowdStreet, and others.  

Quote from @Bobby Larsen: I’m particularly bias on the topic but the word syndicator is once again a dirty word and the truth is, there are many many very good syndication groups out there.

I am admittedly biased here @John Ki, but I think PassivePockets would be a great place to start. 

@Jeff Nash there is no need to express your bias against well respected and nationally known Dave Ramsey.

I am a little biased but Anderson Advisors is good.

This fallacy is a bias that favors recent events over historic ones.  

Welcome Welcome @Jamie Grossman - I am a biased Chicago investor, but know that success can be found in every market across the country! 

Most real estate investment will have aspects of both cash flow or appreciation, but be over biased to one or the other. 

They publicly state their bias against property rights.

It’s a great resource to stay on top of things (I also help write it, it for now (unt so I may be biased).