(disclaimer here…I do not know anything about your financial profile as a borrower). 2. 3.0-3.5% earnest money deposit (EMD) seems reasonable.

Think of all the things that could go wrong and see if the lease addresses them: unauthorized pets or tenants, early termination, security deposit, lease violations, late rent, eviction, lawn maintenance, parking, etc.5.

I could have decided then to back out.Some states have different deposits and timeframes.

Separate deposit?

I completely agree with Account Closed  "We won't be able to renew your lease after xx/31/xx." with a reminder that they are still responsible for last month's rent and if they leave the apartment clean and damage free they will receive their full security deposit back after move-out.No reason to go into details.  

@Trenton DossI’ve had this happen before so I’m really scared to trust someone when they ask for a deposit now and they push you to make a commitment or you won’t be approved.

Thanks everyone.As of now, I think I will use a combination of TurboTenant for advertising/screening/lease signing and Cozy for deposit/rent collection.

Think of all the things that could go wrong and see if the lease addresses them: unauthorized pets or tenants, early termination, security deposit, lease violations, late rent, eviction, lawn maintenance, parking, etc.5.

Deposits were also a joke too with duplicate entries and stuff that just made it easier to do a work around by entering it in as the tenant lost all their deposit and then paid the tenant like I was paying a bill and just note that it was a deposit refund.

There might be more subtlety to it based on other agreements (like the Deposit to Hold agreement, among others) that could modify this, but if you have an executed (signed by all parties) lease and nothing has nullified that, then both parties are obliged to follow it.