IMO that rule alone puts US real estate miles ahead of Canadian equivalent.

My down payment on this property was equivalent to 1 year in college, and it suited the education I received in so doing.

For this, I would keep 1/2 of the security deposit - the total deposit being the equivalent of one month's lease.

Keep 5 years in Cash equivalents. 

Would love to know more about this or an equivalents of this.

You can also have them pay a "pet security deposit" equivalent to a few hundred dollars that would be returnable like their regular security deposit as long as there is no additional damage incurred by the pet.

@Matt Taschner What are the details of the $11,000, is that the equivalent of 5 months plus late fees or 12+ months plus late fees?

This would be the short term equivalent of a duplex in a D neighborhood.

Sometimes the renter pays this, it could be a percentage of the total lease amount, or it's the equivalent of the 1st months rent.

They didn't do any marketing and ended up with a 13% occupancy efficiency compared to the market (this is equivalent to over 350k of lost revenue).