I let prospective tenants know what the average electric bill is when marketing the apartment, and have never had an issue renting it.  

I'd argue its not my responsibility to examine how the 1099 issuer/tenant applies those payments to their own finances, whether its funneled through the corp or on the personal taxes.

Wrong thinking, you need to know how the bond was created, is it valid, is it in compliance, is the issuer credit worthy, what are their earnings, if they went belly up, what assets are there to pay obligations?

This will allow you to be able to pull past information easily without having to search through a stack of papers, or a cardboard box.If you do most business electronically, then set up the same sort of directory structure to keep track of records. 

Me personally, at one point I had cardboard boxes stored near the wall, which got damaged when it soaked up the water.

After reading all your updates I assumed you must the property must not be in Seattle, if it was you wouldn't have as much issue renting but you would have the issue of the new rule whereby it's a first come first rent basis and allows the tenant to pay their security deposit in installments! 

Dawn, Those are great numbers, I noticed many of your properties are 1 or 1.5 baths, do you have any issue renting them?

Some of the best ones work as hand-written on cardboard with a bent coat hanger stand.  

And if anyone calls me about my recently evicted tenant, they wouldn't rent him a cardboard box.

I have been taking money orders for the first month's rent and the SD, but now I have heard that someone can give you a money order and then go to the issuer immediately and (fraudulently) claim it was lost to void it.