Couple that with $2k due dilligence fee I suspect a large portion of this lender's revenue is collecting fees for deals that they do not fund.

I don’t feel comfortable investing passively in a deal whose partners collectively have little experience; so I don’t feel comfortable syndicating a deal without experienced partners either. 

I would need assistance on drafting leasing agreements, vetting tenants, rent collection etc, etc. 

We've been having extensive talks about marketing expansion the past week or two.

We have tenants sign this form when we collect the deposit and it eliminates confusion should they want to back out  

How do people collect rent?

I put down 20% plus closing costs on all of them.I don't know all of Brandon's deals but I believe he got some hard-money loans, borrowed money from relatives, and at least one of them involved a credit card (which he doesn't recommend).You can read "Investing In Real Estate With No (And Low) Money Down" to get an idea of some differents strategies or you can scour the blogs and forums and collect the information for free.

The operating company takes on all of the liability that would otherwise blow back on you including: paying property management, paying contractors, collecting rent, marketing, etc.5th pillar is owning everything anonymously.

My idea was to leverage the equity in his home to get into a/or some cash flowing properties, i would purchase those properties and operate them and let him collect 100% of the cash flow from it or them. 

Couldn't complete due diligence and so requested extension, sellers agreed in writing.