Turns out she had conned him into letting her live in his extra bedroom and was operating a scam that she had pulled before in another state.

It seems like scamming and horrible grammar is the norm, but SOMETIMES there is interesting/useful information in there as well. 

The ESA thing is just a scam for most people to get animals into properties that either wouldn't allow them or avoid fees.

Not sure how he’s never been locked up for his scam, but I guess it worked for him.

I have searched meetup.com but it's hard for me to decipher the marketing scam meet ups vs genuine meet ups.Thanks for the help BiggerPockets community!

I asked how he knew, he said it's essentially a scam/rip off that he's heard about numerous times and sometimes the home inspector is in on it and gets a kick back. 

You guys make it sound like investors are a group of douches that specialize in scamming/tricking/manipulating people into making money for ourselves.Come on guys.

But if you are getting even LESS interest with lowering the rent then could be 1) too low and people think it's a scam (generally only if the place is too nice for that price) 2) timing, people tend to look at the end of the month not the 1st 3) seasonality - schools out for summer for example in University Heights

That is why this scam continues to even consider wiring money outside an escrow is insanity. 

My partner called the leasing office while I was at work and confirmed the letter is not a scam but they did not provide detailed information about the charges over the phone.The building is owned and managed by Tod Speiker who has built an empire by buying up all the B and C class units in Silicon Valley, evicting long-term residents, putting in a couple stainless appliances and jacking up rents 50% or more while providing basically no service to tenants on issues of pest control, in-unit maintenance, noise, etc.