To achieve this, I’m planning to scale rapidly by performing a couple of syndications to acquire a larger portfolio.I currently have a portfolio of 17 properties, but to justify labor costs and create a sustainable structure, I need to expand quickly.

Generally, #brokersarebest but there are outliers to that statement.

It sounds like the Title Co. was not aware that the tenant prepaid rent and just prorated the current rent for the month of closing, so agree if they had no knowledge of it, would not have ever gone on the settlement statement as a credit to the buyer and they likely will not do anything post closing to help obtain those funds. 

Then your best bet are probably community banks which have more flexibility (albeit worse terms) than larger banks and also worth looking into are DSCR lenders.

I'm looking to bundle them and 1031 exchange them into a larger property.  

Larger company -- tried to escalate to the owner. 

I didn't have much imagination for it. 5 years ago I started looking at buying a larger home I could house hack because it allowed me to get a larger property than I could afford.

Can't say I agree with that statement.  

.- The TL states that those are technically the team's leads and I will owe the 20% if they convert within the year since I was given training (which I was not), lender referal (which was forced on me by the TL even though I work with my own lenders for my clients).Is the above statement true/legal/valid?

And some expensive ones for larger operations.