His service is unbelievable, and he's also an investor.

@Christopher Freeman they all had tough legal representation & the majority assumed some young kid would never have the drive to completely rehab a home & go for alternative financing in such a short period of time.

@Sam Grooms hit it on the nail for where you are sitting at.So you need 2 things. 1) Where are your actual rents sitting at and where can you take them.2) Where are your actual expenses sitting at and what needs to be alternated/reduced/added3) Market, is there good long term opportunity of the market where the property sits?

Alternatively, if you could find a house hack where you could cut your rent/ mortgage payment down 50-75% this is a total win as well. 

The rates are a little higher as are the fees, but they are a great alternative to folks who can't get conventional financing.Stephanie

I agree that $8000 is still a lot of money, but when the alternative for the buyer agent is making $13,000+ (2.5% commission), the buyer agents are certainly going to think twice about what homes they show.The typical breakdown on the MLS is as follows:50% of homes offer 2.5%25% of homes offer 2.75% - 3%25% of homes offer 2% - 2.25%What I would recommend is:Make sure your listing agreement clearly states that the listing agent does not collect the buyer agent commission if there is not a buyer agent involved.Offer 2.5%By offering 2.5%, you know that you will not miss any interested buyers, which is the last thing you want.

A prosthetic to a guy that fell into a wood chipper doesn't sound as permanently debilitating as the alternatives may have been.

It seems like another alternate play rather than earning $200/month on some other markets.  

Is there an alternative option I'm not seeing? 

And any money that is collected, whatever it is called (pet deposit, last month's rent, cleaning fee, or even advance rent) is considered to be part of a security deposit.As @Jason D. states, one alternative may be for the landlord to put the money into an escrow account and then withdraw an amount equal to rent every month, but as @Ronald Starusnak states, if you evict you are essentially terminating the lease and any money remaining from the collected amount may have to be returned (less appropriate legal fees).