For those reasons, my assumption was that selling the place wouldn't allow for an eviction either.   

I’ll include all of my assumptions and the reasonings for why I’ve priced things as I have.

Also, if you only did one or two functions, you'd have to go to another team or else a broker would have to take a chance on you that you could produce as an independent agent.I'm making some assumptions here from what your post. 

The assumption is that PM is PM, basically, it's the same with whichever company you hire.  

There is very little downside to going into escrow under the assumption that you'll be doing a 1031 exchange because there is no penalty for not making an exchange.

My initial assumption was that they simply understood how the platform worked well enough to guide people through the steps and SEEM like the PM, but after reading the text transcripts of the last victim it seems far more sinister . . . the person was issuing lockbox codes.Has anyone else seen or heard of this happening recently? 

You also need to look at the comps as well to validate your assumptions.

Here's the scenario I worked out in my head with the following assumptions which still need to be validated:It is possible to combine these two unitsIt will be eventually possible to buy and combine another 2 adjacent apartmentsIt is possible to sublet one combined apartment at a time with restrictions (only two years with primary occupancy requirements in between)I would therefore rotate my primary residency between the two, and sublet the unoccupied one. 

I'm making an assumption (because you haven't clarified) that you're not investing in the greatest neighborhood.

I closed on a property, with the assumption that I would be getting prorated rent and the security deposit.