Then the attorney says, well, he has caused you to incur a financial loss by devising this off the wall financing arrangement that is not common practice around here, we'll sue him for damages!

I have found these to be very helpful and have taken away great pointers of things to avoid- legal and just basic business practices.

In the first instance, you simple need a partnership agreement (or a company) with you as the operating/general partner to make it official.In the latter case, you may find yourself in the realm of securities regulation which will add much more cost and effort to your fund raising.

All of the advice he gives is practical.

We use separate contracts - with no financing or incentive ties between them - but I read a thread on BP last week where a snippet of the regulation from NC was posted and it appears they prefer a single contract there.Either way, a 40K option fee on a 94K property is way too much and would be considered predatory just about anywhere.  

From crowdfundinsider.com:"The most important restriction is that companies can only raise $1,000,000 in a rolling 12-month period using these new regulations."

I do not believe Fair Housing regulations or Human Rights acts impact smart landlords that know what they are doing.

I'd be curious to read an opinion from someone who actually practices law

Is this common practice?

I don't know about Florida, but I would suggest do thorough and independent (I.E. don't just ask a RE agent or PM and take their word for it) research on regulation and regulatory risk, especially around Disney parks.