If the same guru fabricates his personal history, or the success of his methods, that may be fraud.  

I also discovered that the company in question had a history of not renewing their license and hadn't so in 2011, 2013 and 2016.

@Alison CromwellIn order to obtain a flip loan with no consistent income history, the following steps need to be undertaken: create an impressive credit score, put aside more funds as a down payment, check out new methods of getting funding besides what is available from banks or other financial institutions, involve yourself in investments with toughened entrepreneurs, show how financially sound you are by doing things such as getting enough money into savings over time through frugal living habits or accumulating valuable assets that can be readily converted into cash when required among others like developing several stable sources of income or steadily growing one.

I persisted and much to my surprise one day the door opened a crack and thus began a multi month journey through this man’s personal hell that eventually led to a $30,000 profit.He owned a local Jamaican bakery that was failing; his marriage was ending and his soon-to-be-ex moved out with their 5 year old daughter; and now he had lost his house.

New tentants moved in around the middle of January, they asked that a fence not be installed as they had no pets and they wanted their daughter to be able to ride her bike in the backyard.  

We had no credit history in the US so most typical lenders wouldn't work.

What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.?

On the surface it also sounds like you have a lot of local support for managing and maintaining the property but I suspect that will kill off most of the returns.The real information is somewhat hard to come by as the developer controls much of the market, the rental management, and a lot of the previous pricing data as they didn't report to MLS for much of their history.  

Usually, "family" is considered the first tier, mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son, your spouse, grandparents, all being in a direct linage, blood or marriage, your great uncle by marriage isn't in this group. 

History doesn't always repeat but it tends to rhyme.