Go to the NMLS consumer portal and look his name up and see what you find.

Chasing references can be time consuming, so if the credit history does not meet muster, we save ourselves time.

The real estate license process is a bit more lengthy and time consuming these days.

My personal experience too and this is for those that do not plan on owning them forever and willing them to your kids or next of kin at a stepped up basis.but for those like me that were thinking hey I will own these 7 to 10 years take the write offs then sell retail..I did all that sold retail but what I was not thinking about is that a 10 to 14 year old home even though I bought them brand new.. to sell retail   what was acceptable when I bought them  tile counter tops  black appliances etc etcnow retail buyers standard is granite stainless  new paint 3 colors floors perfect etc etc.so it was costing me 20 to 25k per home to do a retail up grade to sell them for retail prices.. along with cap ex ( which in my case was minimal) since these were only 10 to 14 years old.. but then roofs being replaced because of hail that cost deductible.. and so on and so forth.. the cost of owning and keeping these nice is just more than you can raise rents in most markets.. that's my experience I got top rents in the day but they never went up much during the 10 to 14 years of  ownership.. just like I see modest type rentals that rent for 700 to 900 those rents have stayed pretty constant for the last 20 years .. and prices to fix stuff has gone way up.. 

The learning curve is much shorter than going vertical and much less time consuming.

If it is not something a consumer can do online that can usually help the business with a storefront.

I lived below my means and had no consumer debt again after we paid it off.

I can believe that there aren’t websites connecting buyers and sellers for a flat 1-2% yet.I don’t see a downside to the consumer to more competition.

Especially interest rates on consumer debt such as non crucial items put on credit cards for 20% interest. 

Enjoy the short lived niche opportunity while it lasts.... or has already passed.Even the local dispensaries won't want to deal with local growers because the consumer will soon want potency and purity testing, consistency, and name branding etc., and the dispensaries will stock what sells and that will be "Willie Nelson's Best Weed" and not your "grown down on 5th street" brand.