Your service should use human verifiers, or you can be scammed. 

there is a whole forum on biggerpockerts devoted to "real estate success stories".

I won't be moving into it, and using that rule was a scam that was overly abused by landlords so new legislation just passed requiring the landlord or family to live there for 12 months.

She was 2 hours away from getting scammed out of a $5,000 upfront fee from a "lender".

You were not duped, scammed, lied to, or anything of the sort, and your attitude is a piss poor way of getting people to share information with you.

I am considering purchasing a rental house, but my current business leaves me hardly any time to devote to dealing with renters.

Devoted to doing this full time since Sept 2016 and am constantly networking, reading, looking for deals and money.

That's because 99% decide they are ready to wholesale but never actually do a transaction...I would think that anyone who is serious about the business, isn't scared to take action and who devotes the time should be able to do 5-10 deals in their first year.

Whether he's a scam artist or not, what I do know is that I need to start building a network to get started.

It explains the scams, half truths, and outright lies that you may encounter.Good luck and happy investing!