There will be an initial deposit, progress payments tied to milestones, and a final payment upon project completion and satisfactory inspection.3.

I left out the most important thing - NEVER overpay a deposit for work not yet completed, that money and person/s sometimes have a way of disappearing in certain situations like that. 

we take contingent offers.. but we do require 10 to 20k non refundable release to us.. if they dont have the cash at closing then they lose the deposit .. but we dont sue them to perform. out of about 75 sales now.. we have seen probably 5 or 6 fail because their current home did not sell.

For example, if the previous last month's rent was $1,000 and the new rent is $1,100, you would request an additional $100 to cover the increase.Update the Agreement: Ensure that the lease renewal includes a clause that reflects the new last month's rent amount.Refund and Repay:Refund the Previous Deposit: You can return the last month's rent from the previous lease to the tenant.Collect New Last Month's Rent: Then, collect the new last month's rent at the increased rate as part of the lease renewal process.Steps to Take:Review Your Lease Agreement: Check the current lease agreement to see if there are any specific clauses regarding the adjustment of last month's rent upon renewal.Communicate with Your Tenant: Inform your tenant about the rent increase and how it affects the last month's rent.

And when you do offer it to them, collect the full deposit within 24 hours.

Yes, you can use an attorney to close without using a real estate agent, and they can usually hold the earnest money deposit and distribute funds after closing. 

Airbnb gives you far less control, and getting deposits for damages is near impossible.  

I see that they don't currently have physical checks (though will send one on your behalf) and it takes 6-7 business days for a check to show up in your account after depositing via their app. 

@John Williams politicians at all levels of government are taking away landlord property rights to protect slum-tenants.We'll soon be like Ontario, Canada where they can't charge application fees or security deposits and it takes 12 months to evict a tenant.Unfortunately, landlords are too cheap to make political donations to stop the madness:(

We have ended up being the latter a couple of times in 7 years because we started off trying to be helpful, but have put policies in place to avoid it:Our rule of thumb is that you can’t be behind by more than your security deposit.