If you have a deal and you're willing to contribute some time & sweat equity, you can consider joint partnerships &/or equity partnerships.

It's just a matter of finding those deals.

If he refuses and especially if he was an agent on this deal, I would report him to the local board of realtors and possibly also to the state's real estate commission.

Please provide useful advice on locating, assessing, and negotiating private money lending deals, especially from seasoned professionals.

Hey @Tucker Cummings, congratulations on your upcoming Sub2 deal!

Not looking to spend too much money as this deal is amongst trusted family members and I just want to make the transaction legitimate.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

You're dealing with an attorney and a pretty selfish one at that. 

And if you reduce the amount, you are reducing your protection.I have tried both and I'm still not sure which way to go.Airbnb's solution (neither one, just a virtual deposit, in case) is the best, IMO, but vrbo has not yet copied this one (I wish they would).How are you dealing with this matter for those of you on VRBO?

In my previous post under a similar heading I talked about my main learnings from a land deal that I'm working to close.