Spending 55k with projected rents of $1500, say 500 per unit.  

You should also review the contract terms with an experienced attorney to protect yourself against issues from the contractor or their employees.  

People are normally protective of their trades.

In other words, for an honest GC, there's not going to be a big spread between what you save if you do it and what you spend if you hire it.

The reason investors lose when markets turn is not because they are over leveraged it is because they do not protect themselves, income wise, when it happens. 

Although making sure you aren't spending more than market value for the property is important but making sure the numbers work out is more important.

They are a consulting firm who tells me I can file my taxes and set up an LLC through them and be protected by this state laws.

I wouldn't spend the money until you have an accepted contract unless the bank requires it or a competing offer does it.

I know as a salesperson I'll spend almost all my time dealing with SF deals at first; however exposure to brokers and agents, who are doing the things I want to do eventually, is what I'm seeing as the benefit.I personally want to become an investor and use commercial real estate to create passive income.

Why would GF spend 5 years losing millions of dollars/year to prove a concept (RECF to non-accredited investors) when ultimately that segment would make up less than 3% of the company's entire funder base in order to IPO?