This is similar to a commercial loan in many respects, and the key principal is that you are not personally pledging a guarantee.  

The seller wanted too much for the property and I respectfully declined, but then seller asked me to give it a try out of their desperation knowing I'm looking to assign the contract.  

I want to keep these guys they are respectful, clean, timely... but I also really need this system in place to help my growth progress smoothly.

Do you know which rules have to be respected with respect to fund raising?

Is there a contract/agreement between the two of us that we should enter into to protect our respective interests?

I also know that some of the San Diego RE Investors that I respect from this site use similar numbers.I do not want to discourage you from the purchase. 

You should ideally have both and then observe the LLC formalities and respect it as an entity so that you get full protection.  

When you're standing in front of someone and you approach them with respect and courtesy, it's hard for them to ignore you like they do a postcard or an ad on Facebook.

Couple that with falling rents and guys in the real estate business shedding their properties made me nervous about the market in Midland/Odessa.I'm new at this & obviously not an insider with respect to any housing market, but am I interpreting things about Midland/Odessa market incorrectly?

The toilet and sink we picked out was $199 and $79 respectively and he was putting everything out to pro bid and told me he did  not do the make up of material so when I saw 1600 I was taken aback a little .