There are no deposits in place.

Have a separate bank account for deposits and rental income.

@Brandt Thompson...assuming you're going conventional financing, and you're truly going to rent the property, just make sure you get a lease agreement signed and if you can't get a deposit, have a 1007/rent schedule done that will back up the lease, and you should be given 75% of the lease to offset the PITIA. 

A check-out list of suggestions for restoring the property to move-in condition, to enable the full return of their deposit.

At least in NJ its straight ad valorem, with the various tax assessors updating assessments in a periodic hodgepodge way...Pre 2007, our attorneys did the closings and the brokers held the initial deposits. 

But now he’s asking when he’ll get his deposit back.

Would there be any reason for me to not get an FHA loan and put down a bigger deposit, any benefits to that?

The security deposit is not rent.

Hi,  We took a property off the market 6 weeks ago because we landed some tenants that paid a deposit / holding fee. 

Take this 💥just-closed renovated property for example💥:With my query of "22757 Charlemont Pl, Woodland Hills, CA 91364 5/4/2400-3050,0.6,300" we get an ARV Estimate that is ~4% off, and I picked this at random just scrolling through recently closed in my areaAnd the Market Stats $/sf of renovated property in that Zip Code matches up pretty well, so I know the ARV estimate is realistic:You can also run Agent Stats to find/get in touch with the real top-agents in that area so you can triple-verify everything and/or list it with them when you are done.With the above, I am able to quickly vet every new deal that comes my way and spend more time on the good ones.