Other closing costs such as loan origination, title fees, prepaid escrows etc also will be involved.A good strategy I like to use with buyers is to get as much seller assist as possible.

@Kareem Aaron not from your area, but all of the research that I completed reveals there is no statute on prepaid rent.

If they offer a temporary buydown then the buyer can take advantage of the former while still participating in a nice rate.However, contrary to pre-paid interest or straight buy-downs, the temporary buy-down can be credited towards a refinance in the event that the rates plunge sometime in the first year or so.This is in essence like a crampon for an ice climber - it allows the person to take advantage of the scenario at hand to effective achieve a result.  

The more expensive option would be a 2 sim phone with a pre-paid "pay-as-you-go" number on one of those sims.

Write months on them, "July, August," etc.Each month, stuff your bill in the envelope and put it in the mail.This will also highlight for yourself that you're giving an (essentially) interest free loan to a checking account, but still paying interest on however much less in debt would be it you just prepaid it early in a lump sum.

There should be closing costs/prepaids (attorney, lender fees, appraisal + tax/insurance paid upfront) which might altogether be in the $5K ballpark for this type of property.Gross rent is key.

You'll probably still have to pay prepaids, but that's normal, and then you wouldn't have to tie up all your funds and then get a higher interest HELOC down the road.

If you screen properly, collecting rent won't be a problem, but in my opinion even if you collect it ahead of time you shouldn't spend that money until you've earned it- what happens if they need to move out and want the prepaid rent back?

They prepaid the months rent a few days before the fire and have a decent security deposit i'm holding.

This was going to be prepaid to me for the two weeks at the closing.