Would it be considered acceptable or ridiculous to ask an accredited and very active RE investor who is interested in a deal you are looking at (whom you hope to develop a positive relationship with and or/ partner or invest with you) to sign a non-circumvention agreement, prior to them seeing the deal AND prior to having the deal in question under contract? 

If it intimidates you, don't worry, I will attempt to be concise and provide a laymens terms summary.Basic statistics crash course:Obtain as many sample rent data as possible (Zillow works)Define alpha for null hypothesis testing ( 0.05)Run multiple regression analysis (#bed, #bath, sq ft) against active rental list prices.Observe P-values for each metricResult:#Bed - 0.02#Bath - 0.04Sq ft - 0.02All are below or equal to 0.05, reject null hypothesis (statistically significant).Create multiple regression line using coefficients for each metric.Input variables from project property and solve for rent!

The scariest part of the house was I did not have all the cash available, I hustled my A** off to have the cash in the 30 days after my offer was accepted.

It took me a year and a half before I even got an offer accepted on a property.

I received back an acceptance of that offer along with an assignment contract.

We have avoided them in the past due to those issues despite their attractive pricing, but are considering using them at a property next year as a "test".

I accepted that I'll sound a little shaky or clearly like a beginner, but I started cold calling numbers, mailing properties, and googled every real estate agent, property manager, and landlord in my area and any title companies or real estate attorneys I could just to practice speaking skills and ask random questions about how they run their buissness or how other investors are doing it.

I made my agent take out that we accepted FHA and only showed it to Conventional buyers essentially.

So i made the offer, left a 2k check and the seller accepted a week after. 

The CoCROI seems acceptable, as well as the amount of cash flow you are running.