... long story short, in my area of employment, wherein background searches are frequently performed, social media content is searched on persons of interest.

The 50% rule is valid, and used by experienced investors for deal analysis because it works, and is surprisingly accurate across a wide spectrum of properties: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...It's common for listing agents to paint a rosy picture of a property's performance. 

Always do a background/credit check, call their last two landlords, collect a security deposit, have a formal lease, call their employer to verify income and to get an idea of how they perform at work and be extremely clear in your standards.

Use the cashflow from your newly performing asset to build those reserves, and when you refinance to recoup your initial investment, you'll be in a better place than you were. 

I’d be happy to hear stories of recent deals performed using either of these or other financing methods.

Not included pools of notes which totaled I think 5.Performing - 132 available where 19 are 2nd's / 21 pending sales (19 are 1st's) Non-Performing - 51 available where 12 are 2nd's / 5 pending sales (2 are 1st's)There appears to be some good notes available so are buyers in a waiting pattern?

You have to be ok with different liquidation outcomes.For example, if you buy a non performer with the intent to foreclose and get the property back, what happens when the borrower files BK 13 on the day of the sale, and prevents you from foreclosing for at least 5 years while paying on their BK plan? 

There are synergistic enhancements to a workflow that can only be performed when a group is working together in an office.

If you also have an unallowed loss from these activities from an earlier year when you didn’t qualify, see Treatment of former passive activities under Passive Activities, earlier.Qualifications.You qualified as a real estate professional for the year if you met both of the following requirements.More than half of the personal services you performed in all trades or businesses during the tax year were performed in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participated.You performed more than 750 hours of services during the tax year in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participated.Don’t count personal services you performed as an employee in real property trades or businesses unless you were a 5% owner of your employer.

This analysis is taking into account how the property will perform once I have moved out and filled the empty unit.