We have big plans to grow our business which also includes a personal real estate investment portfolio, getting proficient at consulting with our clients who want to invest in real estate and also working with more investors who want to buy and hold or buy and flip.  

I have consulted with a lawyer and he seemed knowledgable and helpful but he still quoted me 200/hr.

You may not like the Trustee, but s/he has an obligation to you in acting in that matter, ask them the best course of action and yes, you may need to pay for additional consultation, or ask your attorney if you'd rather not deal with the Trustee, the Trustee can also be changed by the note holder with the stroke of a pen. 

It's really best to spend a few hundred bucks and consult a real estate attorney in state and a CPA and see what they recommend.

Since then we have consulted a local real estate attorney who consider the LLC/trust scenario an overly complicated one, and that we should just go with our original notion of simply having separate LLC's for each property. 

Hi, I am new to real estate investing, having been doing IT consulting for the last 15 yrs.

I say this because - at 27 years old, 10 years in the hotel industry (on both corporate and property levels), a handful of international consulting projects with small hotels and restaurants, and my own operating business of tourist apartments - I'm not sure where I'd get a certification like that, nor that I'd deem myself an "industry expert".

Please consult with a local attorney.

Recommend consulting with your CPA, who will be able to answer this for you with precision.

I always recommend to new investors to consult both a real estate agent and a real estate attorney until you learn how to actually due the due diligence properly and effectively on you own.