The way I see it, the reason he needs my money is because he doesn't have his own to invest in the project, so why is it so common to say "you do need to put in X%"?

Not available at reasonable (sometimes unreasonable) hours to meet clients - people will pass you by! 

Rawn, I think the reason for the PM is that folks are afraid of violating rules about self-promotion.

She was a complete joy to work with, and the cost was reasonable.

Enough to cover you for a complete loss and potentially getting sued for numerous reasons.  

There is no reason so get reckless. that usually never ends well.

Any reason Mom can't sign? 

Reason being if deal goes bad you walk away clean and they suffer.I also would never recommend to anyone to have 100% leverage as your playing with fire in those situations. 

However, one of the reasons why I find it better to ask for help in the forums and go through articles and podcasts is because these all seem like absolute beginner questions that I am asking hypothetically, just to learn how to answer them.

Unfortunately the results are a reasonable result (except for the financing).