I have no idea who Anthony Turco is, never heard of him, but let me explain something about courses and gurus.There are a lot of fake gurus out there and a lot who have bad intentions, but even in most of those the course information is not terrible (it's just copied from someone else).

The tenant reached out with their intent to get a new roommate.

Go for it, they can create a personal website and list it on Google, put their phone number in there and deal will all the tire kickers who have no intention of actually buying.

Please understand that most be don't have bad intentions.

Myself, significant other, and my close friend/business partner have been renovating his personal residence for the past few months with the intention of renting it soon.

Myself, significant other, and my close friend/business partner have been renovating his personal residence for the past few months with the intention of renting it soon.

You're focusing on the language around the word "intent" - an interesting angle, possibly not without merit.

But Generally, most lenders will want to see that the lease or market rent can support the mortgage payment, the borrower does not intent to live in the property, the borrower has 20% down + closing costs, 6 months reserves, and credit is above 620. 

So just recognize this could be lengthy process if they default.If it was me, I would take it as a non-refundable deposit with a letter of intent and a purchase and sale agreement that the money is a down payment, is not refundable and they must execute the closing by a specific date otherwise they forfeit the money.

In addition, building into  the business model an intentional refinance in a short period of time, you are incurring double the financing costs, which eats away at your equity, and also resets your loan amount to potentially a higher amount if you are rolling in closing costs.