Laws are now passed that prevent you from renting to yourself and claiming all the losses.

I like the idea of a hold back until the punchlist is complete, but that doesn't prevent an unscrupulous contractor from stealing the initial deposit...

You can only do so much to prevent worst-case scenarios  EXACTLY!!!

Otherwise, you could also provide prevention recommendations somewhere on the lease that includes what you've mentioned above.Assuming you don't have a lawyer to help with your rental agreement you can find some sample clauses on a site such as Law Insider.

I won't get into too many details since the list would be long, but in 2021 I bought a house in Tucson for a part-time escape from Washington state winters while Airbnb'ing it the rest of the time. The previous owners...

Make sure you understand the basic math, what qualifies as a good investment, how to manage your investment and prevent losses, etc.I would start with Set For Life by Scott Trench.

Moving forward blindly on that deal would have put our investors money at risk, which isn't an option, so WE took a $60k haircut to prevent that.

just really disappointing that the loan officer knew we wanted to rent it out and when the real estate savvy guy wasn't there, made the other buyer sign something preventing that. 

If the tenants leave cereal boxes out and the house gets overrun with ants, it's still your responsibility as the landlord to have pest control in place to prevent or treat the problem.

They are trying to prevent investors/brother in laws from "stealing one".