Steps to Securing the lease and getting it signed

[Adam Perez]

A brief background, I purchased my first townhome a little over a year ago. Fast forward to today, we are expecting our first baby and found a great opportunity to purchase a cheap fixer up in a great neighborhood. We decided to list our current place for rent as we realized we could some nice ROI and the appreciation in the area was on the upswing.

12 days after listing and multiple 7-8 showings, we got our first bite. A couple, medical students on their final year. At first I was having everyone who reached out to me come to a showing and after the first 2 or so, I got smarter and started screening. I sent her my list of questions and even sent a video, once they answered everything and watched the video, I had them come by for a tour later that same day.

As we brought the tour to an end, they mentioned to me that they loved it and asked what the next step was. I promptly handed them the lease, application, and a deposit form to hold the place until they officially signed the lease. I told them I had some very interested that was coming early the next morning so they filled out everything and brought me a check for the deposit later that day.

My question is, did I take the right steps in terms of paper work? 

To go over it, I first handed them all the paperwork, they signed the application and deposit with the check. 2 days later they handed me the signed lease and I took the property off the market.

We have an HOA so they are in the process of approving them and should have an answer for me tomorrow. Should the application been approved before I took the deposit? I did my due diligence in terms of reaching out to their references and such and if everything they told me is true, there should be no reason they won't be accepted.

Should I have waited until they were approved to take it off the market? Was it right to take a deposit before they were approved by the association?