I believe it's within the landlord's right to refuse as the contract is no longer valid; they are not terminating it prematurely. 

He has a license to protect, and I understand that if I was actually planning on moving out prematurely that he wouldn't want to do business with me. 

Turns out no repairs were made and a tenant was placed in the home prematurely (no health and safety items thank heaven).

This is NJ, where even if I knew for sure which tenant was doing it, there's no way I could get them evicted for premature trash.

You'll learn a lot from the ones that they, not you, made work.Alas, many new people, opportunity detectives who pre-maturely refer to themselves as investors, find a single property, try everything in the world to squeeze something out of it themselves, but fail to monetize it and eventually loose interest.It's still about attitude AND action.

I realize this question is a bit premature, since I haven't read both your books fully yet, but its itching at me, and I had to ask.

And my son and daughter n law have a premature baby in St Louis hospital" They are looking for a 3BR for "about $350". 

You can break up the progress payments small enough to solve almost any cash flow issue for the contractor (I pay my drywall crew daily) but until the material is on the property and/or installation is occurring, there isn't a need to pay premature invoices let alone writing a 33% check weeks before a job starts.There are too many contractors that start asking for big deposits at the end of the month for me to feel comfortable prepaying for services in large amounts.

Instead, they will buy Drano, or unravel a wire clothes hanger and shove it down the drain to dislodge the clog.Good luck proving that your prematurely rotted out pipes are due to Drano that has long since washed away, or that cracks are due to the clothes hanger and not other causes.My general rule for tenants is exactly what the home inspectors rule is.  

You start tossing any assets into the trust, you will be cutting your own hand off prematurely.