If not, I was assured I'll get a full refund. 

You need to determine if the company has systems and processes that assure their quality.

A "safe harbor" exemption would be a Regulation D 506 offering, under either (b) with no general solicitation and  or advertising or (c) which allows for general solicitation and advertising but places stricter liability on the issuer in assuring only accredited investors are allowed to invest and the certification of those accredited investors.  

I emailed Rich and he assured me his dentist was great, so my wife started emailing Dr.

Primarily because stating that "no landlord should ever respond to a lawyer letter" is most assuredly, at the very least, legal advice in my own jurisdiction.

Steady w2 income, the "tech wizard special" is basically to preapprove and send you house-hunting based on a single paystub (or just an offer letter if we're really being aggressive) and your verbal assurances that you aren't going to be job-hopping until after you have the keys in your hand from your purchase. 

The reason I phrase it this way is so they can be assured that I am not attempting to come in there to judge how clean or un-clean they keep the place.  

Within 5 business days, Buyer will deliver to the title company a check for $5,000 to be held until Closing and release of contingency. ”The $50 assures a legally binding contract, and the check is to be held (not negotiated) until closing.Installment Down PaymentWhen funds are tight, control property with a contract of sale and pay the down payment in installments over a period of time.

And, this gives me to assurance that I know my contracts are solid, and I'll have a lawyer ready in case anything does come against us for whatever reason.

Treating them as capital contributions will assure you are reimbursed, getting reimbursed is better than getting the deduction.Make sure you treat the un-reimbursed expenses as expenses related to that LLC.