Renting with Property Owner using Homeaway

[Imani Moore]

Hi BP!

Quick background of this story. I just recently moved to Atlanta, GA. I'm still getting settled in so before I get to investing & buying my own residence in the area, I'm deciding to do a short-term rental. I've been looking & came across a listing for a 2/1 in the Buckhead area. I am told that it is fully furnished & ultilities are included in the rent. The listing provided an email to reach the owner. He responded to my inquiry but I want to make sure everything is legit. The email address he responded with is an actual address (not one of those weird spam ones). He hasn't asked for any wire transfers or anything weird like that. For work, he inspects offshore oil rigs which makes him an absentee owner. He uses Homeaway as a third party source to actually rent the unit. My problem is that he says the security deposit is $1,420 which includes first 2 month's rent & holding fees which will be refunded if I don't like the place, which is fine. But, he's saying that since he's offshore, I can't view the property until the security deposit is submitted to Homeaway in which he will then fly out to do the walk-through or send the keys via FedEx. A copy of his passport was also provided for transparency. 

Has anyone used the Homeaway third party to rent to tenants or has anyone used Homeaway to rent for themselves? I just want to make sure the information sounds legit before I even attempt to move forward with anything given I can only go off of the pictures provided on the listing, which could possibly have been taken from somewhere else? Any advice BP? Thank you!