It seems like a win win keeping them.

Win win. 

The area attracts many vacationers during the summer months, and if you are able to get some winter renters from Oct - March its a win/win.

This is assuming excellent credit, ratio of 1.00+ on a SFH with a long-term lease at 75% LTV.

So it ends up being a win-win for everyone... we have no rental gap, and the tenant still gets part of the deposits back.  

@Evan Polaski excellent explanation.

If you have ever heard the saying you have to be in the game to win the game, I have found that you have to look for properties constantly to find the deal you want, but along the way you find a lot of other properties, that if you had your real estate license you could have made money on. 

It’s great to see your enthusiasm for diving into real estate investing and flipping houses, especially with your experience in home improvement and remodeling.You raise an excellent point about using your own cash versus financing through hard money loans.

If the court is really crazy, it could hand a win to tenants, even if the tenants have never mentioned the mold problem before.

It’s usually a win-win for both sides.