I would however expect to know what guidelines they use up front and would be upset if they lowered them without my knowledge.

It could appreciate but I consider that gambling.

My guidelines:1) More you spend on landscape - The more it costs to maintain2) Goal should be to keep a simple as possible and not allow "hiding" places. 

Buy and hold could work too, but right now the ratio between cost of property and rents doesn't make sense for a lot of houses on the market, unless you're gambling on appreciation.

Conventional loans are mortgages that fit Freddie/Fannie guidelines to be sold on the secondary markets.

@Steve Morris my contingencies are:Inspection contingencies: after the appraisal if anything is wrong with General inspection guidelines we can walk.

New leasing activity continues without interruption, as the Company’s proprietary Let Yourself In℠ technology provides full functionality for prospective residents to tour homes, submit applications and execute leases while following social distancing guidelines, resulting in an April 2020 Same-Home portfolio Average Occupied Days Percentage of approximately 95.1%.

I'm interested to know if there are any other general guidelines for determining how much rent to charge and how much of a deposit to collect.

The amount of damage that needed to be repaired exceeded FHA guidelines and went over the 20k threshold.

Infill lots are something of a gamble with a lot more moving parts for due diligence.