In some cases, simply disturbing the item risked causing an explosion.

If yes; syndication wins nearly every time IF you have a capable sponsor/operator.Turn Key in general is a bad/mediocre model for the retail buyer.

Simply put, I told everyone I knew about my plans to start investing in real estate.

Could simply put that amount toward a secured bank of america credit card.

Money is too valuable to simply leave it sitting around doing nothing.

I started investing in RE simply for income and wealth preservation.  12 years later that principle has not changed. 

In prior years, you would test your business to determine if you were actually running (a very unsuccessful) business or if you were simply dabbling in a hobby.This article is a pretty decent break down of how that test is done using the facts and circumstances present in your endeavorIf running an unsuccessful business, your losses might be deductible, buy depending on the nature of those experiences, they might just be Start Up Expenses, which are handled much differently (and also not entirely deductible)If you are just dabbling in a hobby, then prior to 2018, there were special rules about writing off those expenses, but in 2018 most of the ability to write off Hobby Expenses are now gone.

There simply aren't enough units to spread the costs across. 

The Land Trust is considered the entity doing the business of the asset and not your LLC, which is simply a beneficiary, and so you don't have to worry about those additional costs.

My understanding is cap rate= purchase price / annual NOI, so did the owner simply take their own purchasing price when they bought their property and divided it by their annual NOI ($97,450)?