I heard that they are backloged with complaints, but not sure how it is affecting the investors.

You end up with a legal mess and possibly lose all equity.My advice is to spend $500 with a good real estate attorney to learn the law and risks in your state.

It seems owner-financing is out the window legally, but I am seeing lots of ads on craigslist, in parks, etc advertising terms and owner financing.

But you're not going to get people to give you 100% of the down payment and operating cash and let you retain, say, 50% ownership.And, syndication involve a non-trivial amount of legal work.

But bottomline is if it's too much trouble using bandit signs, there are far more effective, legal and convenient ways to do your marketing.Hope this helps. :)

My question is: is it legal to charge me 2 months additional rent if the unit is re-rented within 2 weeks of me leaving?

Can I legally claim it as personal income instead of income that went through my business?

You can still collect if their is damage but they could refuse and you would have to file legal action.

Usual disclaimers - I'm not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, YMMV, etc...

You did not have a contract on it, so you had no legal interest in this deal.