Marketing has changed so dramatically in recent years and many legitimate business people, in absolute desperation, turn to all sorts of measures attempting to generate leads, hence new business.If you picked up on this up front and it bothered you (understandably) something inside of you override your instinctive mind, defying logic.As for your expectations, Jenni, paying for hard costs up front is customary.

He also had the seller under contract and was probably fooling him into thinking he was a legitimate buyer when he, in reality, could not afford to purchase the property, which in my opinion is unethical.

This gravely concerns me as this was going to be my first flip and was going to be done with hard money.Since this is my first deal and I don't know whether this is just first time jitters, or whether I have a legitimate concern,  can you advise as to whether I should just take my $1000 loss (earnest money) and move on to the next deal, or whether to follow through.

Hey @David T.As far as making sure you have legal and correct forms for anything real estate or property management including rental application forms, I would suggest using or at least checking your local state department of regulatory agencies to see what constituents a legitimate rental application, or you can print the form off the website.

Yes wholesaling is legitimate.

Might be worth asking to see if she's just using that as an excuse to hide something from you or that's a legitimate concern.

Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University might be a good class for you to take.Also, don't dispute legitimate credit issues, as suggested by another poster.

I always assumed property managers are individual people who take a certain fee.In the UK you can watch out for certain certificate to see how legitimate they are and secure.Not sure about the whole half a month worth of rent etc :/Seems quite harsh.

All the free softball, pickleball, swimming etc and magnificent venues. 50,000 golf carts in the community, 140 pickleball courts over 100 pools, etc, etc,etc.

Our accountant definitely prefers S-corps to LLCs.Our goal is to continue to purchase and rent out properties with this partner and ultimately be able to get investors for future deals, so we want to be able to show that we are legitimate and have experience.Question: Do we have our friend set up an LLC or S-corp of his own and then enter into a joint venture with him?