The other way is called the Enemy Method, where you go to Airbnb and Vrbo, look at your direct competitors, and figure out how full their calendars are, at what prices, keep a tally of their income, and make a guess as to their yearly gross.

Very frustrating as I️ now see more signs of another competitor.

If you have competitors, you made a bad purchase.A "get to know you" party is lots of fun, but I don't think such has any strategic importance to you.

After you get some basic information from there, you should use the enemy method to identify how well competitors do in the area. 

(Think 200% plus) To play that game you’d be competing with millions of dollars per competitor.

He then proceeded to tell me that while he appreciated my expertise, he would NEVER borrow from me because my rates were 1/2 point to 1 point higher than competitors.  

I will never disparage a local competitor but I do not have a problem disparaging them.2.

I would mainly be interested in seeing the listing, evaluating the photos, the listing description, historical occupancy rate, and doing my own research on market comps to see how competitors are performing.

Good stuff here already but yeah, rule of thumb "if it seems too good to be true / terms and rates much better than competitors" its likely a scam. 

I only use rabbu as the 3rd data source to validate my analysis, I find that it runs really high but its helpful and also easy to see what your competitors might be doing.