He wants a $1K retainer and charges $270 per hour.

Almost like they gave equitable title, but retained legal title. 

You would be less concerned if LLC #1 was worth $10 MM and you had a $200k legal defense fund and a lawyer on retainer. 

If you go to work in a W-2 position and quit  your self employmentr you need to retain your solo-k plan sponsorship, which includes keeping the company and the Solo-k documents etc up to date.

When it comes to conventional financing (I'm referring to FNMA/FreddieMac, some institutions that retain the loan many have different rules) a few things you will run into, you can have as many financed properties and be able to refi your primary residence, but, when it comes to refinancing investment properties, if you have more than 10 financed properties, FNMA/Freddie will not purchase the loan and therefore you will be turned down, if you have fewer than 10 financed properties, some lenders may limit their exposure and limit the number of properties they will refinance for you and you may have to do some loans with one lender and some with another.There are some lenders lenders that will refinance your property even if you have over 10 financed properties, the only downside is that these loans will typically be at a higher rate than the conventional financing. 

Of course you don't post how many 2500 dollar fee's you get ,, then retain and the borrower never does a deal.. or like is very common in these deals especially for new investors they do a ton of work only to have the lender make the VAST majority of any profit

You can always just have language in the deed you use to convey to your buyer that says you reserve all minerals if any, and you will retain the minerals if they haven't been previously reserved.

The system we set up is a profit share to put him on retainer.

I would keep on staff a handyman and retain a legal assistant.

About 2 days later I sat there, having retained about 20% of what I learned, and wondered where I would go from there.