This doesn't prevent you from writing another offer, now that you are more informed of the condition of the house.

And if so, what prevents anyone from just basically going around the middle man to get the loan?

Engaging a builder in a pre-construction agreement will help prevent you from being disqualified by the contractor.

As my grandfather always said, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

I don't think having a larger HELOC has any downsides or will prevent you from borrowing more in some other area. 

Was wondering if anyone is aware of any local laws that prevent renting single families out by room or adding walls/kitchenettes to rooms within then rental property.

They consider that unauthorized deleading and it will prevent you from ever getting a lead cert.

Putting drylok on the inside may reduce the amount of water entering in the short term but failing to address the pressure issue on the outside will just make the problem worse over time as the water isn’t prevented from coming into the wall itself as only the inside is sealed, so it just gets trapped in the wall, further degrading the structural integrity of the wall.

and a bunch of people explain to me that the human musculoskeletal system so dense as to prevent self powered independent flight, they have not explicitly answered my question, but by detailing how I have based my question on a flawed premise, they implicitly answered it.

The vast majority will never pay a dime but at least it sits on their credit report and perhaps prevents them from cheating someone else.