Your best/safest bet would be a regular lease combined with an option to purchase.

Is there a month-to-month option?

Whether you want an Airbnb in a vacation spot you can use or a standard single-family home in an appreciating area, there are many options.

I am on the lending side of things so feel free to reach out if you ever want to talk shop and finance options that are out there. 

Anyways- the good: For an entry-level investor, you will not have many other options.

Needless to say, as you mentioned, that is no longer the case with current market conditions.I'm biased, but I recommend exploring and considering the option of vacating both units and renovating both sides for PadSplit.

There was no "assign to property" option and basically I had to re-add their profiles to assign them to a property, which was clunky.

Here are some options I have thought of:1.

Higher deposits might be an option to cover more damage.

Options - collect full payment for the 3 months up front and lower the deposit to secure against damages only, require insurance.