I would still charge the security deposit and not let our super stupid idiots at the city council deter me from collecting a security deposit and paying your tenants a stupid 1% or $10 for a $1,000 security deposit.If you are so worried about being $1.00 off and getting fined be the best landlord in town and give your tenants $20 every year and they will think they died and wen to heaven.As for not getting a security deposit and suing for damages, you can't squeeze blood from a rock and I found it is cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive to take a tenant to court and win, go to court a second time for an appeal and win and go to court two to three more times to do discovery for your tenant's assets to try to collect on your judgement and still not get one penny.

We've setup systems & processes to accelerate discovery, though regular review & group feedback will help us optimize our constant search.

If you make 50k a year with your job is very different from someone pulling in 200k or 300k a year.Most of my clients we see how much they have to start and then go through a discovery process until we narrow down what they want.

What I haven't been able to discover is how taxes will factor in.Obviously, you don't pay taxes on the refinance part, since that is technically loan money.

In discovery, that number can be ascertained.

An issue with individuals passing title by a QCD requires the abstract (history of title ownership) to include the discovery of what interests were held by that grantor or seller and that gets further off topic!

But if you go through discovery questions and carefully outline the value of your cash offer (besides just the number), and how that offer will work, you will end up securing far more deals than if you just called them out of the blue and said, "I can help you sell your house for cash."

in any case, it would be a measured risk with minimal chance of "discovery", if deception were one's MO.

Lenders and brokers/agents like to say  GO,GO,GO and get the buyer knee deep in costs hoping if some issues pop up they will stay committed to the deal.A good broker/agent tries to maximize discovery upfront at the smallest cost to their client to get ultra clarity on the viability of a deal going to closing before accelerating a bunch of costs in the process.

Best alternate route would likely be to litigate and use discovery to gain access to financials/books of his management and rehab companies, which he has repeatedly denied access to.