In your opinion would a call to the owner to negotiate be appropriate?

After that, we will leverage appropriately.

The appropriate use of leveraged appreciation will allow you to build a larger portfolio over the long run that you can cash flow off of instead of chasing yield. 

Once you have the financials and the going cap rate for the area, you can determine an appropriate value for the property and from that you can figure out if you can hit the returns you are looking for.

Honestly he should re-evaluate the original scope and ensure no changes have occurred and revise docs even if it's changing ownership info on drawings and update appropriate dates. 

They set up a draw for me so the rehab payments are deposited into my bank account at the appropriate times.

Will depend on several factors like the type of property, type of tenants, your risk tolerance, other assets you own, your estate planning, laws where the property is located, etc.Any lawsuits would be limited to the assets of the LLC and not your personal assets (assuming you run the LLC appropriately and the corporate veil is not pierced).

Thats most appropriate for scenarios like you just mentioned@Logan Turner. 

I would say that I did not approach the situation in the most appropriate manner but long story short, we signed a promissary note which gaureented me getting my money back in three months.

b) Are rules of thumb like the 1% rule and expenses = 50% of your income applicable and an appropriate standard in St.