I have my deposited directly into my business account from section 8, which means I cashed the check.

While it might be easy to claim banks are broke the facts are a bit different.Most banks who have been seeing write-offs from bad mortgage backed securities are not banks who take deposits.

Reviewing existing lease, acquiring their security deposit?

No security deposit is going to cover the potential damage that could be easily done to a granite counter top.Its not that tenants don't deserve granite counter tops.

Operating expenses include taxes, insurance, management, maintenance, vacancy, advertising, entity maintenance, legal expenses, evictions, setouts, damage done by the tenants (in excess of the security deposit), office supplies, lawsuits, utilities (at least during vacancies), capital expenses (not technically an operating expense), etc, etc, etc.

I just deposit the checks.

Now take the cash advance and deposit it into an no restrictions account.

If you know where to look you can find endless amounts.

I bid my number, rejected their full price counter, and recountered by agreeing to a 10% earnest deposit and bumping up my bid a few thou.

I had called the owner the same morning the ad in Newsday came out, but someone elsehad jumped on it and put a deposit down on the property even before the ink had dried on the ad.Here on LI, RE is very, VERY expensive and(IMHO), overpriced.