It shall be an unfair or deceptive practice for an owner to: (a) require a tenant or prospective tenant, at or prior to the commencement of any tenancy, to pay any amount in excess of the following: 1. rent for the first full month of occupancy; and 2. rent for the last full month of occupancy calculated at the same rate as the first month; and 3. a security deposit equal to the first month's rent; and, 4. the purchase and installation cost for a key and lock.or, at any time subsequent to the commencement of a tenancy, demand rent in advancein excess of the current month's rent or a security deposit in excess of the amount allowedby 940 CMR 3.17(4)(a)3. 

However, if they are building condos like crazy right now, you'll need to get comfortable that the future inventory isn't going to create an excess of inventory, it does happen where building gets out ahead of the population and it could take several years to absorb the newer and likely nicer units.    

Is this excessive? 

If your purchase is more than the the total amount of obligations the title company will pay any excess funds to the seller.

But, I think you can think of a few things to disqualify a market:1) Natural disaster zone.2) High, existing, property taxes.3) Excessive rent regulation.4) Asset prices that lead to low or no cash flow.5) No obvious story about jobs + the local economy.That takes a ton of cities / places off the list.

But nothing excessive and we learned A LOT.

Look for a property with enough excess cash flow to cover your student loan payment!

I've been using the same carpet guy for awhile now and most of the time he will tell me what he has in excess (and thus sells it dirt cheap) or what he knows a few shops are trying to move.

IMO their best bet is to cut their losses and move on............ but that's too much like right. either way they'll learn when the new buyer either can't close or it's sat so long that buyers have other choices due to the excess inventory out there. i have no sympathy for banks nowadays.

For example, damage done by tenants in excess of the security deposit, legal fees, evictions, capital expenses, advertising, etc, etc, etc.