I want to use her equity as a gift for the down payment to avoid capital gain taxes.

You need to work with someone who can help you according to your specific circumstances and resources.

Don't expect it to be easy because it will never be.Skip tracing is a tool that finds any number associated with the requested address.

Rather than that, if a loan is called because the property underwent a condo conversion (apartments into condos) or subdivision process without the lenders awareness/approval, would they still be required to offer a preforeclosure period before being able to foreclose, as is the case for lack of payment?

If there is no agreement signed and this person is just someone listed from the broker's database, I do not believe it is acceptable for the broker to collect a split in addition to the house split.If you are to consider negotiating this additional split, there is a lot to take into account here... what is the % of business that you generate on your own vs. how much your broker contributes?

Credit HistoryMany companies use credit summaries, but we find these rarely tell the whole credit story.

Miriam,Great to hear from someone in Eugene, OR! 

Whoever created the trust should be able to help you with that.

I was hoping to get other owners to join me in protest but no one seems interested. 

If you are wanting to manage someone else's property and aren't even local to the property you aren't adding much value.