Hey @Zongfu Li, you should try and work with a mortgage broker to avoid these scenarios.

It can be done ethically, but you need safeguards to confirm mortgage & possibly property tax payments made on-time, as well as insurance with you protected.- Also, you need a legal way to take back the deed if buyer defaults!

Have also used list source and prop stream before but the data they provide is very similar to what I pull off the tax records through CRS Tax. 

Similarly, a credit report fee upfront is reasonable, but these can often be avoided as well.

Is the option government supplied insurance where taxes supplement the insurance?  

I keep a very healthy amount of reserves to avoid using my insurance unless I have a catastrophic issue.

It's an estimated cash on cash return given current rental rates subtract expenses assuming 7% interest rate, 10% management fee, 5% repairs, 5% capex and other expenses like mortgage, insurance, tax. it's a estimate to tell you what properties to analyze vs ignoreyou can see the are pockets of negative returns as well as pockets of positive return. this is to supplement the data @Devin Conley provided

At a 37% tax rate, this creates around $117k in tax savings, reducing your taxable income from $700k to $583k.2.

I would avoid anyone who wants you to pay anything upfront other than an appraisal. 

Is it tax smart?