I thought such discussions would be confidential regardless of signing a listing agreement.

@Ricardo Flores In your transaction, the lender is the Appraiser’s client and due to confidentiality, per USPAP (Uniform Standards of Appraisal Practice), the appraiser cannot just “release” the appraisal to any one.

It was a hard decision because I believe in the area and I like the house, but it has a lot of deferred maintenance and I am confident I can make a higher cash flow return with our money.  

If I don't feel confident, I don't move on them or the city.

I’m confident I will be awesome at it and thoroughly enjoy the job.

The title company provided me all the required paperwork, held the earnest money, and CC’d both the seller and myself on emails (unless confidential).

Start with the owner, Usda won't give you any info as it's a confidentiality issue.  

He claimed you can only get this "confidential information" through the advanced training (costing roughly 30-40k) even though Doug said "I have nothing else to sell you, you're already here," in my opinion, it was a great and very well executed sales pitch for their advanced training program.

They are a confidential agreement.

MTR rates for a single bedroom is approx: $900-1200 (I have an MTR rental in the area and bring in $3000 for a 2br - I feel confident I can get $2000 for 2brs).