My original offer was declined and my agent was unresponsive, so I fired my realtor and went straight to the listing agent.

Yes , I was dealing straight with the manufacturer .

Obviously if they straight up don't want any other partners, no matter how much money I have, then I'm SOL.

Doing some quick facts search I found an article from Columbus Business First, straight from the article talking about one of the hottest months of real estate "June" "homes with huge price tags are sitting the longest.

Well I had something in writing, but not a straight up lease. 

The housing stock that I get sent via two realtor MLS portals set up against my criteria has appears to have more potential for straight cashflow rental than true BRRR because the markets don't justify the investment in the homes i.e. you can sink money in but the rent levels dont change much and the value of the property is still limited by the local market. ...it's easy to fall into overdeveloping. 

If you're going to do a traditional straight exchange the options you listed are correct.  

There are other deals out there that are straight forward and will make you money, I'd spend my time looking for those.

Modern dryers are much better at eliminating lint and if you make sure to vent using straight runs (no flex pipe) and use a secondary lint trap, I doubt you run much of a risk.

I assume i cannot do a straight line deduction the entire system, but can i deduct part of the installation?