CFRI.net I guarantee you will find people doing what you want and you can start a journey.

In my market there is (I can almost guarantee) not a single rental that doesn't provide appliances...maybe washer/dryer...but in urban rentals no one is lugging a fridge/stove around.

Where you clearly went wrong is you bought a home for $390k and after renovating it its worth $445k or best offer of $380k.Also realize you probably also signed a personal guarantee so any amounts owed they can come after you for, and if you have equity in your primary residence they could potentially foreclose on that (depending on what state it is).

It was $1k which is a lot of money to me.. but it came with a money back guarantee after 10 weeks of courses.  

A pre-penalty guarantee you keep it for a certain number of years?

Marketing Shift: I’ve noticed that Martel has altered his marketing strategy, moving away from advertising a guaranteed profit on the first deal to a guarantee of helping you buy your first property.

This adaptability has been essential to risk management and guaranteeing that my cash flow remains positive for the duration of the investment. 

A quit claim deed just means you are transferring ownership but making ABSOLUTELY NO GUARANTEES about the title to the property.

However, there's obviously no guarantee in what they'll find... so - how do folks mitigate the risk of the 2k-5k loss when looking to purchase a new property for a plan like this?

If you have a personal guarantee on the property then an LLC really does not provide much protection.