Is this a correct observation, or am I still missing something?

How would one know or find out if the firm, person, Broker, or Entity is guiding you correctly?   

Your contractor is correct, however you should still collect a W-9 from him that indicates his full legal name and S-Corp status along with the signature for your records. 

Richard, that is correct.

Now that you have mentioned the payday loans though and how easily that would be to correct I can see why you should stick to the higher amounts.

It is vitally important that you treat your investors money well, communicate properly, document well as well as use an attorney to set up the offering properly.

Looking for something that can handle the finances, budgeting, owner communication, etc.

You'll want to make sure you structure the language in the correct way based on what you decide. 

I understand it that you have to live on the property for the first year correct?

The total credit card debt I have left, i've calculated that it will take me 6 months to pay the rest off if I budget correctly minus my student loans which the interest rate i have it super low its like $100 a month.