Let's say there was a rental building next door with identical comps: What would stop them from going there instead to avoid paying those fees?

The syndication was a finite 6 year life, and contained multiple notes of varying maturity.  

You could always explore refinancing out of the hard money before it's maturity date, but on your first few deals your focus should be squarely on the property.

I wish I had had your maturity at your age!    

.- The format for the paystubs were identical and like no other stub I have seen

High LTVs, short maturities, mezzanine debt, outside preferred equity, and multiple share classes (the recently popular A/B equity structure) all increase risk. 

The stories are endless of one person on a block paying $8000 for all new windows and another practically identical house on the block paying $20,000 for all exact same new windows.So your means of buying and getting the windows installed can really affect whether this is a good idea or not.

HUD considers that a conflict of interest and a potential identity of interest conflict and violates HUD rules. 

I posted some information in another thread with identical titles here:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/505...Basically, as landlords the ways I have been able to figure out how to flush out those with real ESAs vs those who just claims they have ESAs either with a bogus letter or paid an online service to provide ESA certification are:(1) Tell them you do not accept any online ESA certification. 

And a pre-mature welcome to Denver!