@Guillaume Elleboudt , one thing that helped keep me motivated to drive around and visit a lot of properties is this : as a father with two kids, I don't get a lot of time to ride my motorbike, so I use real estate as as an excuse to ride it.

Pending HOA rules on minimum leases altho military orders would excuse that rule and you are near CP base.

Each month the excuse is something COVID related, but at this point we are feeling taken advantage of. 

YOU called on Wednesday with another excuse of not having your handcart.

Paying the rent on time is a good thing but doesn't excuse people from being honest.

Basically, I did not want the lack of money to be an excuse for getting started.

Whenever I tried to ask him about specific things, such as rental payments, I was fobbed off with all kinds of weak excuses (mainly blaming other people.

Ignorance or refusing to accept a certified legal communication from a landlord doesn’t excuse the fact rent is going up.

In my opinion, there's really no excuse not to make the place safe for children (was disappointed to see that the selling landlord had this 5 years and just checked off the "don't know" box on lead paint when there is obviously a lot of painting that needs done...so that tells me, "don't know, don't care"); hopefully common sense prevails all around on the law (which is what we expect in NH!)  

Your excuse for asking for a sec dep could be your attorney advises you to do so or your Insurance company demands that you do it for a lower rate.You are blessed to inherit such wonderful tenants.