If you have a tenant that has the upper hand over you in the relationship, it can make your life difficult down the road.In this situation, they want you to hold the house for them, but they are free to go find something else and stiff you.

Hi, @Matthew Cavano - Bandit signs are used by many whole sellers but the implications of them are stiff fines should they be used in certain areas or with no notice to the owners of the land/property.

Your loan officer might work for a bank or firm, but FNMA is the underwriter for all of these homepath loans and they have pretty specific paperwork which you will sign at closing that states your intent to occupy within 60 days and live in it for at least a year along with the stiff monetary penalties for not adhering to these requirements, same as what you noted.

Unfortunately the owner is probably going to stiff them on the deposits, so I may consider offering to return part of their deposit assuming no additional damage is done.

I can relate to your educational background, I just graduated in May with a B.S. in Physics but am finding myself to be a bit unemployable due to an stiff entrepreneurial streak!

I wish I was at a house but competition to get in is stiff.

In addition, this falls under DTPA of the Business and Commerce Code, and the financial penalties can be stiff.

I imagine if the the parties tried to stiff you for your fee as a third party, you would not be able to say much if the activity you were involved in required a license in the first place.

Mostly middle class and rentals are rarely vacant and completion for apartments is stiff.

The person can run with the money and stiff you.I would use an attorney for such an arrangement so that everyone can be held legally accountable.