For instance, Choose Chicago (I used to work for them) is the marketing arm for the city and they drive huge pieces of business that will drive hundreds of people into downtown selling out all the hotels and driving prices crazy high.

I'm a conservative investor and see hundreds of deals a month and at the end of the year may invest in only handful.

I'm always amazed by the BPers out here who say they have hundreds of properties and have never had any issues in X number of years. 

I suspect at the dollar amount you invested most attorneys would say its not worth it. you could send in a sabor rattler letter for a few hundred bucks and see if that gets you anywhere.Keep in mind these guys are not unique this has happened to many many syndication of MF Just read the threads on BP..

I spoke with one company that wanted me to pay hundreds of dollars just to set it up (get EIN, etc) and I thought that was a little overkill.But is it?

Working with a broker helps you save time shopping, unlocking access to the hundreds of different lenders without all the market research.

I have the option to invest $40K of my savings into the project and potentially see a modest return (few hundred dollars a month), but I’m unsure if it’s the best use of my funds.

It contains hundreds of files such as ebooks, checklists and spreadsheets for real estate investors: https://www.biggerpockets.com/filesGood luck.

LOL.. hundreds of them. 

My journey started by listening to literally hundreds of episodes of the BP podcast, and taking notes on which guests had investment strategies that I could see myself trying.