What steps did you take to verify the information?

You’ll only get a little over a 40%  (2 out of 4.5 years) exclusion, assuming it was rented for 2.5 years and you lived in it for 2.Verify this with your cpa. 

The way I see it, unless they start tracing your IP address to your computer's location and triangulating that way, OR AirBNB starts forcing you to provide a unique identifier like a SS# to open a new account and then somehow verifying it (You can still have friends and family have accounts this way) and using a blend of strategies to make sure you aren't gaming the system, it will be very hard for them to enforce this for those who are motivated to get around it...

When I called the local police dept to verify all they would tell me was it was medium crime area-owner put it on the market 3 times in the last 3 years and took it off.

I then bounce her advice that she gives me off of other real estate investors I know to verify it. 

Don't just rely on your agent to verify, because many agents don't fully understand the significance of that coverage, or better yet don't understand the potential risk/cost that could be incurred by you if you don't have the proper coverage. 

Verify the funds are good and then hand her a 30-day notice.

I am having a hard time figuring out how to get a wholesale property inspected or repair costs verified by a general contractor before I put it on contract. 1) First difficulty is finding a good contractor to look at it before it's under contract since the good ones I know wants it to be on contract first. 2) The second difficulty is what if someone else puts it under contract while I am still having it looked at?

It helps the accountant verify you've coded things correctly and it will be a life saver if you are audited.  

Did you verify these rates?