I just finished reading Robert Shemin's Book "21 mistakes that real estate investors make" and in it, it had a section where he talked about writing out a contract for his tenants that makes them responsibile for payi...

The position I created for myself was an office worker, which they had as a paid position as part of the team, but I was doing it for free. 

When you showed up, he would literally have seven or ten people running all around the property doing the tear down, banging hammers and running saws. it wasn't until i started visiting his other customer sites, that I witnessed the same workers being shuttled from one house to the next for this dog and pony show.

I am assuming you are not licenced in VA.And you said that your friend wanted you to help find tenant buyer for your friends property.If you want to be legal and help your friend, do this way.One, act as a principal in a transaction and get a letter of intent from your friend that says that you have act as principal in a transaction, your friend understands that there is risk in the transaction, and you will sell your interests in a lease with an option agreement to a buyer.If you don't act as a principal in transaction, and do a favor for someone, your acting as a licensed agent, and it's illegal.

If his house is unlivable, if he needs clothes, if he is not able to manage his income/assets or his benefits properly, then he needs the help of a case worker at social servicesAdditionally, I'm assuming you are not aware of how food stamp and Medi-caid benefits are affected by income.

(Obviously, the electricity has to remain on, too, if there are workers there.) 

@Joe Gore Where do you come up with this stuff, the title company is perfectly capable of dealing with such situations as has been discussed here, and there is nothing illegal about it. 

It's relying on other screening that I didn't pay for...but I don't want to do anything unethical/illegal either.Thank you.

Is it illegal/unethical to advertise a property for rent, that you will likely purchase as a rental but have not yet purchased, in order to gauge the type of tenant response you'll get once you have the property?

There is also a 7 year contemplation of death rule, in some states it's illegal to do estate planning in order to qualify for public benefits and transfer property to qualify.