Just as you said, there should be no reason to not even attempt the higher rental rate if the current lease expires 5 months from now, especially when they're incentivized to do so with their 9%.

If so, tenants need to pay this portion.The second thing I would do is to advise the tenant that they violated the contract and ensure they understand that the pool needs to be removed when they vacate and the lawn needs to be restored (sod, not just a handful of grass seed strewn about) I would attempt to collect additional security deposit to cover expenses in case they don't do it.I agree that this is probably a sign they expect to be there for a while.

I recommend you doing this anyway before attempting any calculators so you actually know the "what" and "why" for the numbers.

Oklahoma doesn't allow dual agency, but would it benefit me in some way to reach out to the same brokerage that the listing agent works at in order to keep more money in that brokerage and thus attempt to obtain a larger amount?

Other options are to attempt to purchase far below retail. 

"I fairly, and in good faith offered to pay 2 months rent (over 50K) to a landlord for a place I was never going to step foot in due to a global pandemic that took a severe toll upon the residents of NYC, gave timely notice to attempt to try and re-rent, while getting TJ and now living in Florida for rehab, and the landlord tries to extort me for 250K while leaking this story to the media, and I'm the bad guy?

I can say I attempted the deal.

@Dexter Tiggs I would recommend starting with non-section 8 landlording before attempting.

There's no way I can know, but I've never as a renter needed to apply to more than three places, and never as a landlord been told by an applicant that I was his 21st attempt.

Just out of curiosity I wanted to know if anyone actually ventured off and attempted or did the assignment.