In the southern part of the state where I am people usually only use Realtors and on occasion attorneys get involved.

Also, on occasions when power may go out (for this, or others), are there "fail safes?"

I have had to do on several occasions. 

My experience is that quality tenants do honor and abide by the terms of their lease agreement, and will pay a lease-break fee per the lease terms in the rare occasion they choose to vacate outside of the lease renewal parameters. 

On a few occasions we have executed a "side deal" for an item - like a garden tractor for snow removal - which isn't part of the property.

On a few occasions a client will mistakenly believe that a UCC filing will cover real estate because a box on their form has a place to enter a "real estate description".

The only times I have the attorneys just send me the paperwork in advance is when I'm buying from a bank.While I might look at every sale as just a business transaction, I recognize that for my buyers it's a very personal and important occasion and as my customers they deserve for me to treat it as such.

On the rare occasion I have one (because it was in the house when I bought it) the tenants usually want to use their own.

If they decide to take the property they have 120 days to do so and pay you back what you paid, but not the 25% as I understand it.In my case, it was one of the very rare occasions the former owner redeemed and did so on the very last day of the six months.I now see this post is 4 months old.   

Also, with tenants living paycheck by paycheck, I have on occasions given good tenants to the end of the week (not 2 weeks out).The realty is by not getting both funds and moving quickly, you end up in this situation where tenants tell you they are using the sec dep for the last month.