In Georgia, a licensee must place the deposit in a trust account through brokerage unless they are using outside management services.  

The outside of the house does look pretty rough but the property looks well maintained.

Do you have any, or all, of the following experience and skills:Blue collarbackhoelicensed home installertransport driverelectricianplumberconcrete workremodelerOfficeresident intake and screeningresident relations/community relations/governmental relationsbookkeepingcollectionsWhite CollarCompliance Management SystemDeveloping and Implementing a Marketing Plan that makes sense for the style and location of the community you buy.Selling homes at a profit and closing the sale.Establishing some legal and compliant manner by which your prospective residents can obtain financing to purchase the homes you are selling.For 4 and 5 star communities with prospective residents who average credit score is above 660 you will need to develop good relationships with outside lenders.For lesser communities or for communities where the marketing is geared to draw residents with credit scores below 660, you will need to develop some form of seller finance.Developing consulting or vendor resources for areas where help is needed.The more you already know, the less outside help you are going to need.

"Your deposit to cover the costs to process your application and pay for services from outside companies, such as your credit report, appraisal and title work.  

Being a few minutes drive outside of East Mt.

Notice on a month to month non owner occupied property is 1 day outside of 60 in NJ, and should be in writing.

Then see if you can work for/with them in some role...maybe as a research assistant, or if they are an adviser for a club on campus join that club and try to get into a leadership role within the club so you have a chance to rub shoulders with them outside of the classroom and maybe in a more relaxed setting than even the club duties.

So those costs of you living are not part of the equationHolding costs come into play when they are outside of your living costs. 

Is this considered outside the realm of wear and tear?  

I wasn't exactly interested as it was outside of the city.