They also have a ton of material on all of this and seem to know what they are talking about.Do all of these attorneys work on retainer or can I interview them for free?

I suspect that you should read some material on asset allocation and spreading your bets across asset classes.40 properties will almost certainly be accompanied by a mountain of debt if you acquire them in the next 2 years unless you are very wealthy to begin with.

Great reference material!

This is the sort of expenses that you, the promoter of the syndication, would spend out of your own pocket as part of putting the deal together.  

We put the materials on a 0% interest credit card, got the airline points, paid our contractor with cash reserves, then paid off the card.

Ok, my plumber comes with a truck full of tools and a trailer full of material, he would even have a new toilet ready if need be.

If a contractor asks you to pay for materials up front, pay directly to the supplier.

I did not see any combustible material to spread the fire from the back of the stove to the front, and the patterns look wrong for that.

Then I took it to a buddy who does cabinets and asked him to make dovetails on both materials so it will result in a single strip 12' across with the hardwood and bamboo dovetailing into each other.

To make things more difficult I have moved to a different area, so I had to fly in fix the place back up which ended up being a very costly deal.I let her know I would be holding the deposit to cover damages (materials & labor) and since she left on the 15th I would be nice enough to return half of her last months rent.