I've been following the podcast for a while as well as a few others (listen money matters and passive real estate investing).As I was discussing with my wife the idea of building a real estate portfolio in addition to our existing investment (high interest savings, stocks , 401k , IRA) I had a hard time articulating the obvious risks involved w.r.t to losing meaningful amounts of money (15-20k plus)Im planning on starting with something turnkey for a remote property (which I have tons of questions about but that's for another post).

Well-said/ articulated. 

I did not successfully articulate my point, which was, until you go through the bank approval process, how would you know it's a short sale that you can call a short sale on MLS. 

Tats are fine.Be professional, polite articulate educated confident and act like a true business owner.

You first need to be an expert in one deal type such that you can articulate with crispness what you are looking for when you post "how do I find deals, what tool?". 

Articulate your needs and they can help you set your search criteria.

I've spent the last few days thinking on the best way to articulate this question- so I hope it makes sense.

@Eric Wang very well articulated. 

In the old contract there's no specific names listed, it's just their company name which means I could articulate that the new company is not them anymore, correct?

The sponsor's ability to discuss risks and articulate how they'll deliver outsized value relative to the risk taken is the art of raising capital and should not be accompanied by any statements that gloss over risk, which include comparisons to publicly-traded securities with hoards of scrutiny you aren't going to be able to afford to provide in your project.