You should have a fairly good success rate.

(I was communicated that their was a kitchenette permit pulled for the garage by my real estate agent during the purchase process. )Any suggestion for temporary solutions for this would be greatly appreciated.

If you are in a high fire zone, the California Fair Plan is likely your best bet.

I'm a nice guy and I'd love to help her, but now I feel like I'm down to documented, official communications only.

@Dennis Boettjer, I will echo's Brian's comment and add: also take a look at some of the threads in the Syndications review forum: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/960I do not mean this as a "here are people to invest in or avoid", as there are some groups going through current issues that, personally, I would qualify as fairly strong syndicators, overall.  

Connect with local investors through real estate investment groups, attending housing fairs, and speaking with property managers familiar with the LSU rental market.Good luck!

Perform the same task in each app to ensure a fair comparison.Load a property with pictures and details.Market that property.See what your marketing looks like from the public's perspective.Submit a fake application to see how easy the process is.Run a credit/screening report on yourself.Enter a maintenance request, assign a vendor, and attach a fake invoice.Enter charges to the tenant's ledger.Enter recurring charges and automatic late fees.Sign documents electronically.Run owner reports.After testing a few apps, one should clearly stand out.

You as the buyer also have rights under fair lending and you should never be forced to use a builders lender. 90% of the time lenders drop the ball and end up not being able to close on time or their overlays cost the buyer the deal and in some cases earnest money.I would walk away from a deal that forces you to put $50K in earnest and use some generic lender who may not even be able to close the deal.

And you can't be of service if you don't communicate well, so one will communicate well. 

@Tyler GilpinEach HUD office in every County publishes FMR ( Fair Market Rent ) reports each year.Just google Name of Counit HUD FMR and it should pop up.You might have to dig around to find it.Or call the local HUD office and they will point you in the right direction