But they were selling an expensive house in California and had horrible credit.

It was a personal referral, received a credit at closing for renovations as well How did you finance this deal?

Before buying or renting in an unfamiliar neighborhood, you should check the following two sites: SpotCrime, AreaVibes,These sites provide valuable information, including Livability Scores, which cover aspects such as crime rates, employment, health, housing, schools, shopping, and more.well, anything can happen anywhere.

Why set a 600 credit score if it's negotiable?

Is the credit over 780 for both #2 applicants, or is that an average?

Even more than credit, the more experience and capital you have, the more aggressive a lender is going to be.

So far mostly people are telling me I'm probably stuck until their lease is over. meanwhile I also need to pay down my debt and improve credit score. 

To answer your questions here though:Alternative options - I was going to sell all my stocks and etfs, take out a HELOC, and some credit cards to try to shoestring together enough to the deal without a hard money loan. 

You may find this a viable option with rates where they are, especially if your rental income continues to cover the mortgage.Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC): If your property qualifies, you could use a HELOC to access the equity without disturbing the current mortgage.

It's likely a scam anytime they sound like AI or the grammar is weird or they use the word "kindly", if they ask for you to respond to them off-platform, if they say their employer will pay for it, if they ask if the dates they've specified are still open (when they can clearly see they are open on your calendar), if they ask for a video of your property (they probably want to set up a duplicate listing with your photos and video and scam others out of money), or if they want a long term booking and they have just joined the platform and have no reviews (could have been evicted from somewhere else, and hope a newbie will let them in with no background check, they'll end up not paying or credit card is bad).