Congrats on taking the first step and outlining your goals.

But five years of living and breathing design has taught me so much- including many things I use all the time as a designer and project manager.That's the bulk of my experience outlined; I have for a long time known that property management and investing is the direction I wanted to take my career, and all these years I keep swinging back to residential management and wealth building, reminding myself again and again that it is right up my alley to pursue (and I'm not getting any younger).Now, having been laid off on NYE, it seemed appropriate to take this time to build my business.I don't have any savings to bring to the table (one of the problems with the last job was low pay for the level of work I was completing). 

     I am trying to understand the mechanics/math behind a CMBS loan assumption and the cash/equity needed from a buyer who would acquire the property and assume the loan.Example parameters below:Original Loan Balance: $7.5MCurrent Balance: $7.0MAcquisition price: $9MRemaining loan term: 80 months Also any website/articles outlining the loan assumption process would be appreciated. 

Read these links (hope they work) and of course, consult your tax professional.Two blogs that talk about this situation.https://blog.militarybyowner.com/important-tax-matters-for-military-families-when-selling-or-renting-a-homehttps://blog.militarybyowner.com/the-effect-of-capital-gain-tax-exclusions-on-military-home-sellersIRS Topic 701 - The Sale of Your Homehttps://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc701IRS - Publication 523 (2018), Selling Your Home - which outlines the exclusions.https://www.irs.gov/publications/p523#en_US_2018_publink100073089

Simply keep the deposit, send them a bill for breaking the lease and outlining that you took it out of the deposit.You can't keep the deposit because they break the lease. 

Typically the note will outline the terms and is generally one page. 

I bought Brandon's book on Investing in RE with no (or low) money where he outlines a similar scenario to the above where a person gets started in RE investing by getting an FHA/low interest loan on a property that needs to light rehab.

Regardless if the contract is a standard Realtor contract or a builder specific contract, there are usually a few clauses in the contract outlining scenarios when the earnest funds can be returned. 

I'm looking to lend on a deal, and they don't have an LOI outlining the terms of the deal that can be signed before money is wired to the closing agents escrow account. 

Depending on your local landlord-tenant act there maybe some provision that outlines what these tenants would be considered.