I have had this goal of buying my first duplex and have talked to real estate investors, realtors, lenders, appraisers and have been encouraged so much to where I am anxious to dive into this.Now that I am 18 I have absolutely no debt, a credit score of 727, I have 28k sitting in a certificate of deposit, a couple years of working consistently under my belt, I’ve also been investing in my Roth IRA, I feel very blessed to be in this situation.I am still in high school, I know it wouldn’t be smart to buy a house right now but something in me is so anxious to buy this house I know I have to have patience but I don’t know if I should start the process of getting pre approved, finding a good investor friendly realtor, lender, preparing my documents or if I should just wait.When analyzing deals in my market I have crystal clear real estate deal criteria my strategy is house hacking a duplex, price range of 500,000-600,00 in Salt lake, Utah! 

I want to give them their holding deposit back and deny leasing to them.

On the other hand, you may do better by allowing pets and requiring pet rents, pet deposits and pet fees.

The tenants are still under lease, so why would they get their deposits back?

Even on collecting deposits etc.

Does a landlord let a tenant move in without first month rent and security deposit ?  

Did the tenant receive their entire deposit back after vacating?

Low class outfit ... one of my borrower/ clients went into escrow with them last week and  put up the non refundable money getting ready to close and well  the title needs to be probated.. so these guys dont run title until they have your deposit.. will see if and how easy they give my client back his money since it did not close on the closing date and no extension was given or signed..

The paperwork to get them setup almost always meant my first rent check from agency would be about 45 days after lease start, so you need to float that.Tenants always paid with Money Order or cash, both required an actual visit to bank versus standard check that could be mobile deposited or ACH.Neutral:My tenants were not "light" on the property, but generally not overly hard either.  

A KPI could be saving for the earnest deposits.