I'd recommend speaking to a referred lender to help you understand all of your options.

We're wondering about various what-if's though, such as what if the people tear up the place, what if we don't want to rent to someone in particular due to references or credit or pets, etc.

References?

Would love some actual reference to data if you have it (not anecdotal). 

I do share my commissions for referals as well.

I am definitely referring to a house that was already insured as a rental, not as a primary residence.

Can you put one on Houfy or similar site.You can always have one on YouTube and reference the link.

In reference to the recent bubble burst as an anomaly and not the rule, you can still safely assume that real estate prices will continue to climb over time even though more modestly than in the past.

for certain data like price per square foot I've found you can tell them to reference websites holding the data.So far ChatGPT seems pretty good for this purpose but I'm curious to see how Elon's superAI pans out.

Make sure it explicitly explains the process for termination if you are unhappy with their services, but especially if they violate the terms of your agreement.3.