Hello Doug, I am not a real estate attorney nor is this legal advice.Unless someone's state has specific laws banning contract assignments you should be fine doing the following.  

At the same time, someone else reduces your debt, and you get to use the tax code to improve your tax situation legally.  

Not sure if that is still legal or even translates in today's world of everything online but seemed like a good screening tool to me at the time. 

It is used towards the appraisal, the environmental study, document review and preparation.

You can often get better rates with a national lender, but the customer service is non-existent, communication probably sucks, they may ask for the same documents multiple times, etc.

Just doesn't seem right....not sure of the legality.

You search for existing guides, select the best and provide the link or the document to your clients.

If that does not go in my favor I may need to seek legal counsel.

Namely, that if a tenant (in this case accompanied by a whole family) ends up stop paying rent and I would be on the hook for both covering the mortgage and dealing with open ended legal costs and time.

They cannot continue a lawsuit on your behalf if you have not authorized it.I would send them a short demand:"You have five business days to stop the lawsuit and turn over all documents, funds, and anything else pertaining to my property.