Start off by either coming on every hour and unload or stay on an skim (2 attacks and 3 assassinates each 5 min. Not that if you scout you can do 4 and 2 with steals) and hit items, just make sure if you're doing HTE the items are FFA.
Yep. Wallets the way to go. $6 a seal for a 5-7 day stay that's $24-$30 a month for nonstop hte which means major gold which means easier growth.
If you manage to get into a clan doing b2b regular hauntings and buy a lot of seal of deflection you can grow out of LL in a day by building as a guild hansel. You would need to hit the items every time it's up to do so.