I don't believe in marriage so I ain't paying no engagement fee.

So we don't even have an approved inspection much less a lease with this potential tenant.

Tim, thank you so much for the thoughtful response here.

I'm located north of Houston, Owned a Real Estate Mortgage company years ago.....(retired).  Starting all over from scratch... my gray hair is turning back black....LOL.   I'm focusing on buying and selling mortgage n...

Most agency loans will expressly forbid such an arrangement, so if they found out, the odds of having the loan called would be very high. 

thanks for your time and help 1st off, full disclosure here, Rent To Retirement advertises their properties on my Investment Properties For Sale Show, so I am not a totally unbiased opinion and it's only fair that I tell you this up frontHaving said that, outside of running my show for people like them, I also own a property management company in Northeast Ohio and have worked with 1,000's of out of state investors over the years.I say all of that to say this, the overwhelming majority of negative reviews I have seen on them are very similar to a lot of negative experiences investors have with my property management company and others like it that I've worked with.

finally a guy who knows this guy and calls him a scammer haha.

I know notes get called all the time.

In my area a house call for locksmith is going to cost $75-100 just to walk in the door, so $135 all in is not that big a deal.Not a hill I want to die on....... use it as a learning moment for the tenant- ALL repairs need to be approved by you BEFORE they are done.

Fines for unsolicited calls and texts run from $500 to $1,500 PER CALL and there are a lot of attorneys out there looking for people like you to sue.