Consider all the things that could go wrong and see if the lease addresses them: unauthorized pets or tenants, early termination, security deposit, lease violations, late rent, eviction, lawn maintenance, parking, etc.5.

This is very important on the back end if you have to impose claims against the security deposit (at least in Florida).4) Read your management agreement thoroughly and know the cancelation policy. 

Also collect at least 1 months rent for the security deposit. 

1. you're right in the new ones from developers don't produce any cashflow. you might want to look at the secondary market to get better yields as the properties are already built and can cashflow right away. also easier to see comparable rents in the same development. check bank repos, distressed sellers and the like. you might also want to get a parking slot for added income as they can be leased out separately. it's also quite difficult to sell without one should you decide down the road. developers usually have an in-house leasing team to handle property management which we use for some of our properties.  

It has been over a year since we stopped working with your company and I still haven’t received my tenants security deposits.

We are passed all contingency periods and are ok with losing the earnest deposit and moving on.

Hi Ryan Biankowski if it were me I would keep my $10k in the bank for holding costs as well as you'll need funds for items you need to put deposits on like cabinets, counters etc.I would find a great deal, use an HML for my first position lender and a PML for the second.

Password Sheet - I create a password sheet for each entityApartments.com - For rent collectionZDeposit - To escrow security deposits.

@Daniel Grimsley sounds like you have a Class C tenant.They are probably planning on saving the rent they owe you to use to move and pay first month's rent + security deposit on a new home.Why didn't you start the eviction process when they didn't pay May rent?

You can look at a deposit insurance that the tenants pay to offset repairs and fights over their deposits.