If you are accredited then in my experience there are many other options than Fundrise that have much lower fees, much more skin in the game and more sponsor experience.If you are not accredited, then your options are more limited and maybe Fundrise does or does not make sense for you.

They don't care where the money comes from (except drug money etc naturally) they just want the full amount at closing.

Investing (markets/capitalism in general) is a natural process and the most efficient way to manage the supply and demand curve and the allocation of resources.

Syndicators are naturally wary of legal gray areas, so they will tend to follow this rule (the ones who do not may have other issues as well).

@Ryan WilliamsHey Ryan, I'm an asset manager for a global bank.I've worked as, and on behalf of, the largest institutional landlords as well as smaller private landlords.The natural path that you'll see is analyst -> associate -> asset manager, or something along that path.Mine was a bit different but nonetheless learned similar skills in underwriting, analyzing and strategically (re)positioning assets.

I was thinking Option then negotiate with the estate. we do some of this in our distressed work outs.. at the end we prevail but unless your thick skinned and are happy funding litigation then you should be careful.... although to be fair its me suing the other party to either sell to me or sell on the open market. 

My relatives live in Orlando, and find it hard to buy appropriately based upon the high speculative nature of that market.

I understand after refinance in approx 12 months I may have some skin in the game but I'm hoping to pull as much as possible and start the process again. 

That kind of natural appreciation makes it an attractive market to build new projects.

Especially, if you set it an amount that makes certain the buyer already has skin in the game.