The key is to decide first exactly what type of investing you want to get involved in then learn everything you can about that particular area as you can before jumping into investing.

It's usually a bank statement, a letter from your bank or a screenshot from your online banking page.What you are talking about is a pre-qualification or pre-approval letter from a lender (regardless of what they call it), and is used when making financed offers on property.If you try making a cash offer using this fake "POF," you'll find that most of the time, the seller will disregard your offer or make you change it to financed.Now, to answer your question, if you make a financed offer, it shouldn't matter whether you change the lender in the middle of the process, so long as the original lender (the one that provided the "POF") is a viable option should the new lender not be able to provide the funds.The key is, you need to be able to follow through on whatever you're telling the seller -- if you tell the seller it's a cash deal, you need to be able to follow-through with cash (and prove you have it); in this case, if you're telling the seller you are approved for financing, you need to be able to follow-through by getting financing, regardless of who the lender is.

Let's not overlook a key element of information here.

My attorney used a form that closely followed the Realtor form, and covered the key contingencies like inspection, financing, and the seller delivering clean title.Hope that helps,- Tom

Through it all, there are a few key points I've come to believe: everything exists for me as a possibility (and I mean... everything) and if you can dream it, the mind can help you accomplish it.

Clearly this is a scam..don't send any money..this sounds to me like the rental scam where the "owner" claims to be out of country on business and then ask the potential renter to send deposit money and then the out of country owner will fed ex keys.

If we do need to honor the lease by law, is cash for key our best bet?

The roi mentioned might be nice, but isn't likely long term, because the seller is leaving off a couple of key items - maintenance (beyond mowing the lawn), and vacancy.

I asked for keys, the title company didn't have them.

In a short sale if you are missing a few key pieces the whole transaction falls apart or you start over and lose the buyer to frustration with the process.