@Dan DiFilippo I have been working with a real estate agent through Realtor.com, but I haven’t signed any paperwork yet.

I'm now just paying about $1k for my taxes and insurance (including super expensive earthquake and umbrella liability policy) which are essentially my living expenses.

All week I continued to hear about VA’s (virtual assistants) and how important it is to hire them so that I can transition from doing the “admin work” into the “boss” role, essentially taking the dream and making it a real business for myself.

Start with your local banks and CUs.Each bank essentially chooses it's own source of the "prime rate" (WSJ, LIBOR, etc.), that's the "index."

There's a few more requirements than stick-built, but essentially the same. 

At the moment you essentially are asking how many times you need to stop for gas on a road trip when you don't even know the mileage of the car. 

Likely they will only say yes they work there since XX and maybe the salary if they have signed release paperwork. 

If she doesn't agree, then you essentially have a disagreement over the holding fee (security deposit)What's her "real" reason for not wanting to move in?

Also, keep in mind that by using a HELOC you're essentially doing 100% financing on the rental property. 

We used to use Cozy for this- yes, it's still a third party and the potential tenants have to go online and fill out the application, but we get results almost instantly and don't have to process or review loads of paperwork.