I would much rather an agent simply tell me they don't want to present my offer, than pretend they will and disappear.

5) Call them and pretend to be an interested tenant, see how they treat you.

I don't pretend to know the ratio of bad to good, but each person's opinion on this is going to vary depending on the limited flippers they've been in contact with. 

Let's pretend that there's $50,000 in equity.In the cash-out refi, the owner refinances the home for up to 80% of the current balance of the property and takes a cash payment for some of the equity.The loan might look like a new $80,000 mortgage

But gurus have to pretend they are giving you something new or special, so they make up new names for old strategies. 

As far as the lying, I would not even make an issue of it, which is different than pretending it didn't happen, and would probably just cut through their bull and simply say, "hey, each adult who sleeps here is going on the lease, end of story, comply or leave - I don't care who is married or engaged or grandma or kid or whatever your personal story is, I don't even want to hear it, if you sleep here, you're an occupant, all adults get their identity verified and all minors get counted, end of story".

Sometimes it is a relative acting for an owner who is not competent to sign and no legal declaration to that affect giving authority, sometimes just someone pretending to be the owner, sometimes just scammers.Make sure that you have clear government issued id for the seller and it is really the owner, and all owners are checked out.Also you need to ensure that the renters do not have issues or long term agreements. 

This brings me back to the 7 unit converted from a SFR in the first paragraph but let's pretend that isn't a problem for now. 

Please don't pretend to explain other people's life choices. 

If I were you I'd 1) find a source of income through a business or a job. 2) sit on my money and pretend it didn't exist while I research various different ways I'd like to invest it. 3) Decide on a course of action and commit 10% and no more to whatever vehicle I decided on. 4) Execute the course of action and analyze the feedback 5) Based on the feedback I'd invest more money or move on to something else.