The intention is to prevent money laundering and funding terrorists. 

We've also done all the maintenance and repairs all these years, we put new linoleum in the kitchen, painted the interior, built a new fence/gate, stained all cabinets, much more all without reimbursement as the owner is a tightwad and had never wanted to pay for upgrades.

Acting as a messenger, the agent may be in a better position to negotiate a discount without ruffling the homeowner's feathers.A real estate agent can also play the “bad guy” in a transaction, preventing the bad blood between a buyer and seller that can kill a deal.

Using a company to do rent reporting to Credit Bureaus is a good idea to prevent the delinquency in the first place and at least increase leverage to recover the unpaid rent after it has happened.

The belief that the market is too small could be preventing investment in the very infrastructure that could help it grow.

I send tenants to collections because I get the comfort of knowing it sits on their credit report for many years and prevents them from getting loans or cheating another landlord.

The whole idea of an LLC is to prevent future damages.The doctor said I could smoke cigarettes because most people don't get cancer from it.99% of the people asking about LLCs in the forums here do not need and can not form an LLC to carry a property in because they are using residential loans and don't have an LLC with 2 years of tax returns.

This is where you can lean on a reliable agent to prevent you from buying bad deals but I would also make sure you do enough research before making offers. 

I feel maintaining your properties correctly and being decent to your tenants is the best preventative measure we as landlords can take next to LLCs, insurance, and umbrella policies.

I would happily spend $2 to save $1 if it prevents the extorsion.