I am retired and collecting a pension and access to 401k funds (1099-R income)...so I am wondering how all of the information I am hearing about tax benefits as it pertains to W2 incoming applies to my 1099-R income. 

Without these tools, you'd have to do a lot of manual data collection and copy/pasting of comps/data into a spreadsheet for every property you analyze, was kinda the reason for building this out.

I'm pretty sure in some states that would not only violate local/state ordinances on maximum collection of a deposit, but could also be considered a form of discrimination.

I would just use rentredi to screen tenants and collect rent payments. 

They have lots of little fees built in, so I'm curious if those are also on the back end as well:Return to collect rent again Fee x3: $30Phone call with tenant fee: 8 minutes. $5 + .50 per minute.etc

There are a lot of hungry rookies out there that will collect a "Broker fee" or have you pay for a LOI (letter of Intent) and it's nothing but a piece of paper.

So, likely the HOA would not even collect any money unless the mortgage was small.

I am now summarizing the key points for managing rental properties to build my systems before launch ( I am strongly considering Rent-Redi software) but I am wondering how I would use this software for client's properties when collecting rent, holding deposits and the like.

Haven't heard that term used for data collection/skip trace.

I guess you could collect an illegal commission if the sellers and their JV partner were willing to pay it.