If you call it a Holding Deposit, you can keep it as damages if the renter fails to meet certain obligations.I would not agree to hold the property until they pay the money in full. 

You want to get in there and try to recoup as much of your damages as possible as soon as you possibly can. 

The flooding damage cost about $10,000 to repair, and now we've been going back and forth via our property manager to settle the claim with the insurance company.

That's to their advantage, not yours.My guess is damage will be tough to recover. 

Similarly, does foundation problems mean a cracked slab that’s a $80k fix, a leveling problem on a pier and beam foundation that’s a $8k fix, or minor termite damage that can be taken care of for $2k?  

Hello multi family investor gurusCat urine damages property very very bad. 

I and another investor bought 2 properties on the same block and started making them cute, then the neighbors came down and thanked us for making the neighborhood better....the whole block started to take better care of their properties.. 

I got a quote for roof repair, but of course we are on a time crunch due to the contract, and as always you never know how much more damage they find when they open things up.

Hidden damages or poor construction can cause issues down the road.

However this last tenant left our unit in a very damaged and extremely filthy state that took considerable work to remedy (which was a surprise because they had been pretty responsible until this event).