Making sure you have a competent scrub of your Sched E income is one option.

In an  Office or Industrial project, competing business can co-exist as neighbors because they are generally providing a service for which the "playing field" is away from the property.

It's not uncommon for buyers using FHA products to face rejected offers or the need to significantly sweeten deals to compete with those favoring conventional loans.

Unless a person has COMPLETE competency in performing a STR-A, they should NOT do it. 

When competing on quality; owner occupants vs rental neighbors, owner occupants usually have better properties.

That's why many investors have turned to larger multifamilies, because then you're only competing with other investors.

What I do worry about are the growing pains as we transition from a full-blown capitalist society to whatever is next.Because before goods and services will be so abundant that they are free, they will first have to get gradually cheaper and that forces businesses to compete through more  automation and less human labor in an accelerating cycle.

For all that work, it seems even less likely to be able to compare bids from different lenders ... if you can find two lenders that you can get competing bids from (on the same loan product), then you've hit the jackpot as far as I'm concerned.

The only other option is threatening legal action, but that doesn’t work unless you’re aware of what legal options you actually have and if you’re ready to take them, so unfortunately requires speaking to a competent local lawyer who specializes in real estate.

You will be competing with many others when you contact these leads.