I  hope you just want the truth. 

Ultimately I wanted a vehicle that I could have control over to provide income to augment or bridge me into retirement (which isn't for 15 years).

When I told the seller agent it wasn't a big deal and I wanted to see the property anyways the truth came out.

Not sure if that means you didn't ask it or it was asked but not answered or it was asked but not answered truthfully. 

Truthfully they don’t know crap abut them.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle and it boils down to personal comfort.

And these are good tenants, who pay on time and try to take care of things themselves with the professionals I send.And the truth is, worse than the expense, is trying to get people to help me resolve things.

The truth is that if you give as much information up front and the broker knows exactly what questions to ask in order to determine which lender's guidelines/programs would be the best fit then that first broker should be able to come up with the best terms available for your scenario.  

Your experience does highlight the simple truth that asset protection is not one size fits all.

Because things happen in 2 years and people are not always entirely truthful, for example people do sometimes sell houses for reasons other than to lock in a gain ;).