It is the same as having a W2 job and your employer directly depositing your paycheck.  

You should have seen her bank statement, ID, called the employer's number listed in their  website, seen old apartment to check out the story.

This is a guy who had quit traditional employment in his 20s and has spent his life traveling around Southern CA, Vegas, Hawaii, and Southern CO doing real estate deals for fun while building a multi-million dollar portfolio (that's definitely someone I want to learn from!).

Beware self-employment tax)This seems like a good idea, but be careful about how you do it.

Why dosnt anyone operate S-Corp instead, as the self employment tax is avoided?

USAA is also one of the largest employer in the city. 

Ideally I would like to do some serious value add investing, but given my current financial situation having just graduated with a master's degree, I'm looking for something I don't have to put a lot of money into right after buying it.The two main issues I'm running into are: (1) I've been self-employed/an independent contractor for several years and was going to school for the past two years, so my last two tax returns don't look good, despite having reasonable income now.  

They check credit, criminal, eviction, employment, and residential history.

I thought to myself yesterday, driving around town: is this development signal or noise for the city's future prospects (employment growth, population growth, etc.)?

Not only can you get more, but if you are self-employed, it is nice to have the flexibility of being able to downsize, if your business takes a downturn.