Hey all,My sister is a massage therapist, she rents a room from another massage therapist, who subleases a room in a larger office that caters to the profession, which gave me the idea to look into this niche.

There's plenty of discussion on the forums that contradicts our procedure, but we've found that including utilities in the rent is attractive to the majority of tenants; they'd rather pay a premium (because you know we're padding the averages and covering our rear ends) than have to mess with setting accounts up and worrying about scratching three to four additional checks a month.  

All unlawful detainers - no matter the state- are highly procedurally driven so even the smallest thing can get it kicked and you really don't want that to happen.

What is the procedure they have to go thru to see that it is not fake?

They CAN become a passive investment, but only if you really get the processes/procedures down.

“He may go to court and find some error in the sale procedure,” said Gary Singer, a real estate attorney who writes a weekly column for the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

If there are solid procedures in place for bookkeeping it can be a relatively smooth yet necessary evil. 

If you aren't 100% comfortable with how it works, and you're in a tenant-friendly market (i.e. more complex procedures), then you should work with a housing attorney who knows the process. 

The Ohio Revised Code you are asking about is 5321.16 Procedures for security deposits. 

@Andrew Postell Thank you for all that detail - confirms what I thought, that they were just performing standard procedure and didn't manage expectations well in their loan estimates with me.