If the first is foreclosing, are you prepared to pay off the first and bid at auction to protect your interest?

The government will absolutely protect the homeowner through financial stimulus or some forbearance.

If anything "Thanks for your application, we have decided to go with another applicant"The less you say, the better off you will be when it comes to all these protected classes, potential discriminations you're unaware of, and people's hurt feelings 

An LLC is for liability protection to protect the assets OUTSIDE the LLC.

-What sort of protections can be put in place for the buyer?

This gives much better diversification protection across geographies, asset types, strategies, investment subclasses etc. versus putting all the eggs into one basket.The downside is that it's not for everyone, and a person has to be comfortable with turning over control to someone else.

Last I checked emotional support are not protected class.

As Colin noted above it is hard to compete with the large players in the field.Where we found a better bang for our buck was getting on more channels like Marriott, Booking.com, and about 20 others. 

@Stuart UdisYou forgot to have the Wyoming LLC owned by a Delaware holding company that has the asset then put into a land trust.Then seek 100% financing because you are broke from spending $10,000 setting up this corporate structure to protect the zero assets you have.

From my experience the best reason to retain purchasing authority is to protect against mechanics liens.