His negative reaction and aversion to wanting a neutral third party to play referee was a tip off to me to do more research and after paying $25USD for an online background check on the seller I discovered he had multiple judgements against him for business fraud even though the title to the property was clear.My personal lessons from my scammer were1.

If you refinanced the same 400k with no PPP at 5% that would be a payment of 2147, or a savings of 514 a month.

The cash-out refi necessarily means thousands of dollars in additional expenses - likely setting you back further than you went forward in mortgage pay down during the same time period if refinancing in 1-2 years - but hopefully earning more equity in the meantime (fingers crossed).  

There is not a wait requirement for simply refinancing what you owe to get a lower rate or term.

I started doing some research and reading online forums, and it seems like my friend isn't alone.

Nobody I know of uses faxes any more whether hard copy or online.

Switching online services is unfortunately not an option because the large majority of house seekers use zillow.

I see a lot of ads when reseaching online that make it sound like my scenario is possible, but I've been skeptical.

Typically Credit Unions are good sources of capital for Lines of credit but when it comes to refinancing there seems to be quite a bit of red tape.You want to work with a broker who essentially has the entire mortgage industry in the palm of their hand and can put you into the product best suited to meet your needs.

It was definitely an eye opener especially because the pictures online showed a completely different picture of the state of the units.