You don't have a cash box, a safe, a hiding spot in your home, a locked drawer, no place you could put them for safekeeping?

Outside of that if you following rules for locks and smoke detectors I think you are ok.

If you lock a property up for the right price buyers will come out of the woodwork..

When you go buy entrance locks at home centers, many of the lower end locks have a code that tells you which locks use the same key.

-Get all equipment, locks, keys, brooms, codes, etc. transferred to you.

The cash you put as a down payment will be locked into the property and is not easily accessible.

In a low interest rate environment, banks usually won't portfolio a loan with a term for much more than 60 months because they are concerned that the interest rate will rise and they will be locked into a low rate killing their yields.

If you took pics the week before move out, that might not be as convincing in small claims court.Small claims court if you have enough evidence (dated photos, etc.) is probably your best bet.Did your friend lock the property?

They go to the property to collect and find the lock changed, curtains drawn and no one answers the door.

@Shante Harris Most of the wholesalers around DFW, who are "open marketing" their deals are requiring a non-refundable deposit to lock the property up.