I purchased access to the tax lien investor buyers club at a event in St. Louis cause it was on sell and i thought it would work a certain way but so far it doesn't work that way and they are advising me that i should...

because there are a plethora of scam properties online that advertise for rent but use old MLS photos.

I need to know ways I can verify that this is a real person and not a scam. 

So my question is, how are you supposed to differentiate between the contractor that's trying to scam you and will take your money and run, and the legitimate ones when paying an up-front deposit is reasonable? 

The answer is no, this is a misnomer and any insurance agent offering a policy like this is scamming you. 

If you send money and give this person bank information and your social security number you deserve to get scammed. 

It is a $200 scam.

And because this is a government program, it's excluded from the CFPB/Dodd-Frank "high cost mortgage" anti-usury laws that would otherwise prohibit such an interest rate on an owner occupant mortgage.

L.A is pretty anti development and it seems like projects take forever to get approved and built.

As you may know, there are a lot of scams on Craigslist with people pretending to rent properties they don't actually own.