I believe if I can present a bullet proof opportunity, I can find the funding.

We refunded his 200 dollar pet deposit (Illinois has put ESAs on par with working animals, so we had to refund it), although he says we did not (we do have proof of this).   

., there's almost definitely significant value in some sort of proof of concept.

It's not fool-proof, but I think odds of earning 7.5% using a barbell strategy in the average year on your money is 97% likely with very very little effort. 

Proof of downpayment and reserves (typically 12 months for a foreign national)4.

They will have proof you requested the service, so as long as the charge is reasonable it should stand up in court if you tried to evict for nonpayment or something like that.

Most states allow you to hire your own adjustor to come up with your own damage amount and then argue with the insurance company about.The insurance company will want to see the signed lease, proof of funds the tenant paid and confirmation the utilities were on and preferably in the tenant's name.

What this also does is give me the chance to prove that its a good property, operate it to my written plan and present my 18 month historical financials as proof.

If you're living in it now, you'll probably be required to have a signed lease in place as well as proof that first month's rent/security deposit were collected in order to get a DSCR loan (they're business purpose loans and don't allow owner occupancy).

Included in that was hiring a courier company to run a cashiers check to the foreclosure trustee the morning before the sale literally getting the check there within 30 minutes and then have the sale cancelled record my deed and on we went.