The sort of detail that puts me at real risk of ID theft, I'm thinking.I figure this is just a credit check, but I am unhappy giving up my life on a plate, so I offer to pay a lot of rent up front in advance instead.

your poor planning is NOT my emergency"Every time I have rented to a deadbeat, one of the red flags was some emergency urgent reason to move in before the my conditions were met. 

It just might mean that he has to break his estimate down a little more so you can break the jobs and payments up more.I would say that if a contractor isn't willing to do that, it would be a big red flag in my mind and I wouldn't use them.

They have not helped me at all to try and fix this, although they earned commission as the selling agent.

I saw a mini storage facility get so many "required" studies and test and red tape and fees thrown at it by the city that they back out of their plans.

Hmm...I do not like being rushed and the red flags of why he is all of a sudden so available are going off.

However, is it a red flag to the lender if I ask them this question?

The buyers agent actually pushed back when we asked for an official loan denial letter, which rose red flags making it look like they had to ask the lender to be denied.  

I think Buildium is winning for me at the moment!

Feel free to reach out to me at any time for questions that are more involved than a back and forth post.Much success - happy investing !!!