Now I'm looking to get out of my present line of work (mechanical design), and build a company to include different aspects of real estate.

@Jeff Cragar, it's hard to say which would be best because each meetup has a unique aspect to it and best way to find out is to attend a couple. 

That said, not everyone is a good troubleshooter, that takes a certain logical mindset to take in all the aspects of the situation, filter it through your mental database, and come up with the answer.

I'm not sure how clients view them and if they would rather contact another agent that has the listing as well.How does the recruiting aspect work with eXp and do many people go out to recruit?

All other aspects of the deal remain attractive but we couldn't get comfortable taking on the large project without having someone in our group who was closer to the park.We have an extensive set of diligence documents that we gathered during our ~2 month inspection period.

That being said, maybe there's some aspect of the scenario that's impacting which lenders would be able to do the loan.

If you have all that then you are in a position to partner on a deal and thus finding someone who has the hands on experience to take over the aspects you aren't comfortable with (while still allowing you to "watch and learn"). i.e.

One aspect I like is that I can e-mail myself in a certain format and it automatically populates Podio with the info.

So here goes...My wife and I were just plotting our path forward as we continue to research various aspects of REI.

Another aspect is ethics, if you are not confident enough in the deal to put $1000 at risk, then maybe you shouldn't be doing the deal.