Lead paint has a distinctive flaking pattern compared to modern paints. 

You want the distinction of an 'Option Fee' from a 'Down Payment'.

"lie with intent" is the distinction of course, I think by anyone standards legal or not, it would be wrong to lie with intent but with that said, proving illegal?

An important distinction.

Note that in Philadelphia mortgage foreclosures are also conducted as sheriff sales, and the state laws and rules to be followed are quite distinct for those two varieties of sheriff sale.

That is a distinction I could have gone my whole life and never missed. ;-) We can have lunch and I'll share the details. 

Las Vegas is easily 5 distinct neighborhoods.

This distinction if of course most important when you need to use cash out proceeds to pay down credit cards used for rehab or keep the ball rolling and re invest for more flips/investments.  

So these fine distinctions matter quite a lot to me. 

How to spot an Asset Protection Salesman, as distinct from an asset protection attorney?