I am interested in plumbing fixtures, appliances, lighting fixtures, cabinet hardware, etc. 

Rent an industrial strength ozone generator from a hardware store and run it in the apartment for a couple of days.Ozone is an unstable molecule that attacks hydrocarbon molecules, breaking them down into harmless substances like carbon dioxide, oxygen and trace amounts of water.Just make sure you follow the precautions and if you overdo it let the apartment air out for a day.

I go into the house to find amazing $5/sq foot flooring throughout the property when I planned to do the $.70/sq foot flooring due to it being a cheaper house ($40k), so I called him and said "hey this really isn't in my budget I can't afford this stuff it is going to blow the budget".He started laughing out loud and said it was meant to be a surprise his buddy that works at a hardware store had someone bail on a special order of this oak bamboo flooring that is $5/Sq foot and he got it for $.99/ Sq foot and he was under budget on the rest of the house so he hooked it up.Just goes to show having a great contractor can make a world of difference.

It would be better to just hand over your wallet and walk away, then giving a criminal another tool to commit more crimes.  

@Aaron Coplin Hold on to your wallets boys!

I believe atty Andrew Wallet is still co-conservator of Britney Spear's estate, for example.I can't speak for TX law, nor am I a CA attorney.

This monthly reserve deposit will depend on the level of deferred maintenance and age of mechanicals and hardware within the property. 

You can show timelines from start to finish, profit margins, etc. this should help prove competence and relax tensions (also wallets!)

I could have gotten a newbie rep or something else but to say the least, we are less than impressed and have closed our wallets (and minds for right now) and are re-evaluating out entry into the REI space.With minimal time to BRRRR and being in the DC area with Baltimore and Richmond being the only options, we may be looking more at crowdfunding or even non-REI investments.Maybe we are mis-reading or oversensitive but we have worked hard for our money and don't want to piss it away.

At Restoration Hardware they were 700 a pop.