Yeah, you are making it all sound way too simple so you are missing a lot here.

Nowadays, the closing disclosures and legally required Good Faith Estimates (or whatever they are called now) actually shows the two sets of amounts.I might be missing something, but you really don't get charged "more" for closing early, or 'unfairly charged more' --- obviously its "more" since you have up to an additional month of increased carrying costs to pay for...Hope that helps. 

I should have done it sooner though because it got messy and the delays caused me to miss my sale window which added months of holding cost.

Perhaps this is how the voucher program works and I am just missing something.

I'm wondering if there is a way to boost them, or get them seen, that I am missing?

The shower is the highlight of the home and without making it all operational, I will be missing out on the potential premium rent dollars.

Usual is 3x rent, sometimes you see 2.5X rent.Your idea on deposit besides being illegal would be very bad for your units as there would be little justification in them taking care of the unit.Items that we list as mandatory to qualify for our units: No evictions (ever), Verifiable income 3x rent from sources that are at least present for 6 months, Cannot have been in more than 2 residences in previous 5 years, no missed rent payment on credit report, good credit, non smoking/no drugs, about 75% of our units do not allow dogs or cats, strong LL recommendations. 

Less the same miscellaneous expenses, equals about $10K in my pocket.Am I missing something important here?

It sounds like a good deal to me unless I’m missing a higher property tax, insurance or interest rate that can eat into it.

Is it a missed appraisal amount or some other error in the math.