My understanding is: When an LLC only has one member, it is a disregarded entity, but LLCs with more than one member are partnerships for federal tax purposes. 

Generally putting rental real estate inside of any corporate tax entity (C or S) is not a good idea.If you're going to wholly own the RRE assets, owning directly or via a disregarded entity (SMLLC) is generally the way to go for income tax purposes.If you expect to have ~$100k of excess cash flow each year to invest, it might make a lot of sense to spend a little time with an attorney and tax CPA who can advise you based on your individual facts, circumstances, and goals. 

You can either disregard things, ask them to fix them, ask for a credit towards getting them fixed, or walk away. 

It is possible that the LLC you have is a "disregarded entity". 

Looking at the numbers, here's why I disregarded the 1% rule when making this call.

If your LLC is a single member LLC, and you did not elect to file otherwise, it will be disregarded for the IRS, and there is no tax return to file for it now or in the future.

Disregard haha

Does anyone have practical experience with CA FTB catching unregistered disregarded LLCs, and how onerous are they on penalties?

Form a disregarded LLC or multiple ones to hold title to your real estate so that if a lawsuit occurs, the LLC will be the defendant rather than you.

One thought I had was that I'd initially acquire the property through a single member LLC (a pass through/disregarded entity to maintain my status as the tax payer on the new property) and then the new syndication partnership would acquire an ownership interest in the first LLC.