As a new landlord, familiarize yourself with tenant laws and have a solid lease and screening process in place to protect yourself.Be prepared for maintenance expenses by setting aside funds, and if managing the property feels overwhelming, consider hiring a property manager to handle day-to-day tasks.

Catherine id highly recommend spending a full day or two consuming youtube videos that specifically go into detail about this process, theres so much to teach and writing this whole thing out would literally be a whole book.

Like you said, put the proper protections in place but know that you can still lose your money - unless you are in first position.

Most brokers will want to protect their exclusivity on an off-market deal, as they put in extra effort to source it directly for you.3.

As you said, they show up, answer questions about the local market, provide useful data when needed, and just are a general value add to the forums.I think it's fair for consumers to take what an agent says about the market with a grain of salt, but over time, their reputation for giving good info without the smarm wins.

You still can if she does not have a lease, you just need 60 days notice.Emotional support animals are not protected, only service animals, so she does not have a claim there.

You are marketing a deal that isnt really protected in anyway and could be stolen right from under you.

A lender would have to be a fool to lend on collateral that wasn't protected - if the house is lost in a fire or whatever, the loan is unsecured at that point and is basically credit card debt. 

Report them on every online consumer protection organizations and spread the word before they scam more people 

This would include architectural fees, new equipment, cost of protecting or defending your title to the property, or building improvements.