You may be sweating waiting on this deposit, but hopefully, you have teeth in your lease in terms of what happens if the new tenant walks.  

It's the next stage, after your cut your teeth in your local area.Generally, less talk and getting ready (which are both fun but do not pay bills) and more rolling up your sleeves and doing the work.

I am specifically thinking in terms of a partnership and/or private money lending situation, but am interested to hear any experience whatsoever!

Remember, a good agreement makes a good deal better, but a bad agreement makes a good deal bad.Also, as @Dan Heuschele alluded to, if either of you performs any activities whatsoever while residents of California, the state of California's position is that you will have to register your LLC with the California Secretary of State (even if formed in Texas or some other jurisdiction), file the annual Form 568, and pay the annual $800 tax.Also, by forming an LLC in Texas, you may be subject to the Texas Franchise Tax.So really the only person who can answer the question of whether you need an LLC or some other entity/arrangement is a qualified attorney who thoroughly understands each partner's situation with respect to themselves and each other.If you need a reference to a good one, I have one. 

Fortunately we were able to shut down the rediculousness in that case but it still wasted time...In the end, I would say if you were to pursue this work with a permit, it woild likely go through with no issues or concerns whatsoever; however, it's not a 100% guarantee.

My dog needed his teeth cleaned6.

They will make him wish he had never been born :-)https://www.wikihow.com/Report-Employers-Who-Hire-Illegal-Im...Also, based on a recent thread regarding how pretty much anyone with a pulse and eyeballs can be a contractor in PA, I would bet there is no agency to report said contractor to with any teeth to suspend their said toilet paper license. 

No sense whatsoever from a numbers standpoint.

It could also be that it's overbearing.if it's 19 pages it probably had way more teeth and hooks than it needed to. .

Since there were 65 in total, the number of foreigners can't be much more than these 5.As much as the death of 5 people or any person whatsoever is tragic, that number is tiny compared to the millions of visitors visiting Tulum each year.