If you stay status quo, you've still got a strong long-term outlook by paying down the properties faster (as you've been doing), and reaping the cashflow rewards later.

Anti-social personalities (aka sociopaths) can fool the best of us but I ignored the red flags, so this is on me. 

Maybe they like to collect social media contacts/colleagues/friends.

But I do have experience in marketing (website, white paper, social media).

My only issue is that most of them are posted in pending status.

Who are you guys/gals using to do residential floor plans (both current status and proposed) for flips and permits? 

You could call the bank, with their permission, you might also be able to run their credit, I believe it will tell you if they have missed payments, it might not give you the current status, but if they tell you they never missed a payment and the credit report begs to differ that would be useful information.

I claim “Real estate professional status” for tax purposes. 

I want to start investing asap, so I have these questions: (1) Is the 12k I save next year financially worth the hit on my social life as a 22 yr old?

@Tereza DyerovaWe use a combination of password protected documents via email, phoning in sensitive information like a social security numbers, and regular mail services like FedEx or USPS to protect confidential information.