Raising money is all about marketing and sales (not real estate specific) so either hire marketing agency and read sales books, or hop on some LinkedIn courses on marketing and sales.Not sure the legal structure to use: talk to accountants and attorneys.Need deal flow: talk to brokers and go to a lot of networking events.Lending terms: start calling banks and loan brokers.From there, it is all risk mitigation. 

Hopefully someone else will actually have something positive to contribute, instead of a rude response that adds no value, and just adds to post count. 

I lost my money, Hope you don't! 

You could offer cash for keys to get her out-NEVER hand over any money until they are out and you have the keys and signed paperwork that they are out of the property. 

Are you actually building the ADU or contracting out? 

If not and you wrote them the check, then most likely the $ is gone and suing for that money will cost you more than $1000 unfortunately.So cancel the agreement and request the funds

How much money is entering the local area?

Real estate investing is forgiving; the average person can still make money even with some big mistakes.

Was looking for a syndication comment but it never came up.The segment you are referring to is where he actually lost $120,000 on a SFH flip deal.  

Fortunately, we didn't lose money on this property but just broke even.