As a general rule is that you should not expect some Agents are not being totally honest.Just be honest about what you are doing to the Agent and they may or may not say everything you said to the seller. 

There are some scenarios where you might be able to have a Solo 401k with part-time employees or independent contractors, but you'll also want to look at how long you'd expect to remain eligible if this applied to you.

I have also heard of this rule in relation to the CofO. 

Personally I would only invest if the a property hit the 1.5-2% rule.

Need to live in it for one year under FHA rules.

If this is the case, is there some reasonable rules of thumb to use here (e.g. how much should I be holding out for and what kind of a range in mortgage rates should I expect?)

Different states have different rules but in IL, ALL money exchanged must be disclosed to all parties at the closing.

I plan to apply for a personal mortgage and transfer that to our LLC once established.

This does not exceed the maximum rules for FHA credits.

Same rule here: the more victims it sees, the higher the likelihood that the AG would do something.I don't know how many active projects he and his company has going on.