One as a landlord wants to safeguard his property after making substantial investment and the tenant wants to get the best bang for his buck and this more often than not turns out into a cat and mouse game between the tenant and landlord.

It allows you to sit back , collect your check all the time having safeguards in place to keep an eye on the manager/leasee. 

Keep in mind they must safeguard depositor money... it's their money... not yours. 

All it takes is one innocent nail into a stud wall improperly laced with piping or wiring across it to ruin the safety of the house and the people living within it.Find a seller who realizes they shouldn't do everything on their own or stand firm on a price that will allow you to take the necessary precautions to safeguard the home and your investment after escrow closes.

Probably just a safeguard for you taxes that high on a $275k home in NY seem like something may be wrong, so there shouldn't be much of a problem. 

Long and short we added what we thought would be acceptable safe guards.

My question is what are some of the measures I can put in place throughout the application process and when I decide on tenants to safe guard my investment during COVID-19 and dishonest tenants who are looking for opportunity to use the system to get a pass?

It would help safeguard everyone in the partnership. 

I would go with the commercial, the 5 year is a simply a safe guard the bank takes....also at the five year mark you have the option to shop around and potentially pull more money out at the five year mark. 

I'm of the opinion we should go for it, with some safeguards, reasonable agreed on protocols.