For background information, I'm a W-2 contract employee who makes 80k+ a year and I have been working at this job since January of this year.

His negative reaction and aversion to wanting a neutral third party to play referee was a tip off to me to do more research and after paying $25USD for an online background check on the seller I discovered he had multiple judgements against him for business fraud even though the title to the property was clear.My personal lessons from my scammer were1.

Scenario 2 is technically not house hacking, right?

For example, touting that you've never done a capital call or given back keys on a property when in the background, you're having to negotiate with current lenders on loan modifications so that you can delay capital calls and/or giving back keys. 

I have a background with owning rental properties, managing STR, MTR, and LTR tenants, and flipping all in the area.

Once you get a good number in mind, plus costs for repairs, plus a rough perspective of appreciation in the area (because BRRRR doesn't really work until you factor that in here), you can technically make an offer yourself.

@Chris Seveney - I just realized that I don't have tenant's SSN since I ran background via Zillow and they don't share ....

I provide details of the deal, my background and experience in Real Estate and will provide more than that upon request.As a lender, I want to see much of the same.

Everyone knows Allen and how technical he is.

A little bit of background about my area, It's a small rural town about an hour from Cleveland and 75 mins from Pittsburgh.