There were some bad apples among the brokers.

It's available at any Barnes and Noble, Borders, and I am sure Amazon.

If your activity is passive, like buying Apple stock, you are not liable for what Apple does. 

The house has been renovated with wood floors, and I bought really nice furniture from Pottery Barn and such.

That's like buying Apple stock and calling yourself a market expert.We had to show our realtor our thinking, with $100k he would buy 1 property for $100k and rent at $1400.

Like any business Re has bad apples, good apples , etc.IF your entire business model whether it being a wholesaler or whatever relies on being in the middle of a property sale/purchase and holding a contract that says as much (lease option, rofr etc) by theory of some on this site and elsewhere you are entitled legally to sell your contract to another as you are a principal in the transaction based on you having paid a consideration to the seller. 

There are bad apples in any aspect of business.  

It's just apples and oranges.  

First walk-through needed 2 masks to not upchuck. 9 dogs locked inside, goats and sheep locked on the porch, horse barn had NEVER been cleaned out, exotic birds of prey in the garage.Why oh why do we do this?

I own and operate Apple Door Systems of Chesapeake, we service and install garage doors, entry doors, commercial sectional and rollIng steel, and service them all also.