If the broker is holding onto your money, he/she may have illegally appropriated your funds and no longer have the funds to return to you.

A SFR market emerges that looks like this: crappy houses that can command a high rental price by packing students in, often in illegal structures, basements, converted garages, trailers, vans, tents, whatever.

tasks to someone who can do the job a lot better, faster, and cheaper than you can.

I live in philadelphia and bandit signs are illegal here.

It is not illegal to pay any item outside of closing, paid outside closing (poc), so long as it is fully disclosed.

I will certainly get my profile updated as soon as I can but for now I just wanted to get the initial "ice breaker" task completed.

No two contractors work at the same task at the same speed.

So would that be illegal?

The sellers probably don't care if they're motivated enough but I wouldn't want that to be deemed illegal.

And even though it'll be (presumably) the parents that will pay the rent, I would at least do a criminal background check on the actual tenants, as you don't want any illegal activity going on.