Worst case you have zero money and you pay interest for one month on $330 for an “expensive” repair. 

Is there anything I can do to recoup any of that money or am I SOL?

If it does, but more money down, or forego appreciation and choose a stagnent market that cashflows.

Does the seller owe the buyer money or does the buyer owe the seller for property tax prorations? 

I would suggest getting Dave Ramsey's book called The Total Money Makeover and read that.

The truth is if your investors have no involvement in the operations, If they just put in money and expect to get a profit, you have created a de facto syndication.2) I see a ton of people who just raise money for the syndication. 

Hard Money How did you add value to the deal?

The intention is to minimize errors and thus save developers money.

There are a lot of websites that offer the course online, or if you have a college near you, they also typically offer a class that satisfies the pre-licensing requirement.

You would be better off putting money into a fund that performs at 6% to 8% somewhere with appreciation.