I think one important note that I omitted from my original post was some background info.

I'd be curious how you could use your law background in real estate. 

So it's right for him to be wary.Going into flipping home as your first real estate investment might not be the best move, esp if you are both coming from W2 background.

In the podcast, Dave shared his background in real estate, how he got into note investing and why he started his company - PPR.

Real estate license, background check, other?

I try to look up people’s background and posts before responding.  

You can decline them off their credit, background and for not having 2 past positive references.

However, aside from that, I couldn’t find much information about them, and the only online presence seems to be the wife’s LinkedIn profile (though I’ve never met her in person and am just going off her profile picture on Zillow).After submitting the application through Zillow, we attached our income (two months of pay stubs for each of us from our current jobs), work references, credit and criminal background, rental history, and the contact info for our current landlord (who just so happens to be my fiancé’s father).

Do you know how to read the credit/criminal background?

Jeff neglected to perform a background check on this employee.