Quote from @Raghavendra Jakkani: My policy is that they pay a prorated rent for the first month.

If so, get an attorney to file a complaint at the state board and have an attorney notify their errors and omissions policy. 

It goes deeper than that.NYC Liberal policies, including strong tenant protections, increases the risk of failure so much that the risk far outweighs the rewards.Financial ruin is just around the corner for the small Mom and Pop Property Investor that it doesn't make sense for them.The Tenants will have free Attorneys that are bent on delaying eviction cases so long that it stretches into years while Mom and Pop suffer from lack of rental income and still have to pay all the bills and do the management.Additionally, the increase in homeless living rough in the streets due to Sanctuary laws causing a lack of shelter beds, then evicting shelter residents after 30 days creating more homelessness, policies that tie up the Police's ability to arrest perpetrators, etc. only causes Mom and Pop to sell out at large discounts to larger Landlords who are capable to use Economies of Scale to eek out a profit.These larger Landlords will eventually turn a much higher profit as the pendulum will eventually swing towards the middle when the NYC Voting population eventually realizes that it's not a conspiracy of the Rich that's causing the Wealth Gap to increase.It's the same liberal laws that encourage people to become lifelong tenants, small Entrepreneurs (including Property Owners and small Mom and Pop Businesses) to be destroyed, and Rents to rise astronomically as housing becomes scarer even when the population declines by as much as 7% in the last several years. 

So it isn't a complete waste, you would simply need to follow the strict reading of the law with no private clauses for consideration...I'm not sure how that plays out since technically if the lease is void, so is the tenancy meaning you could terminate anytime and not wait for the original lease expiration...I'm sure that's covered somewhere, but again I'd ask my local atty what to do given this is such a locally specific issue. 

@David Niles you are right on policy.

The last house I bought, was brought to me off-market by my agent, and it's seeming that off-market is the only way to get good properties without the MLS prices.I've recently got a nice business card printed up, and would like to start a direct mailer campaign, using BatchLeads to find multifamily properties in the local towns that I wish to invest in.I have a pretty strict criteria about what I'm looking to purchase at this time:-Legal 2-or-more unit large Multifamily (not required to be owner occupied)-Each unit should be at least 3 bedrooms (so if it's a duplex, it needs to be 6+ bedrooms)-Sewer (not septic)-Gas (not oil)A lot of this information is not readily available online, so once I start my mailers, I'm sure I'm going to find people who eventually respond, but that don't have criteria which match what I'm looking for.I feel like it would be a waste if I paid a bunch of money for direct mailers, and then someone reaches out to me to sell, but their house doesn't match the criteria of what I'm looking for -- I don't know anything about wholesaling.What can I do to monetize these leads, or is the answer is that I need to learn So we believe no lead is a bad lead.

Texas has that mix of affordability, business-friendly policies, and solid job growth that really drives demand for housing.

In cases like this, a police report and insurance claim (via tenant's rental insurance policy first, mine second) would be (have been) my first choice. 

Tough part with VA loans is they are still similar to FHA loans and can be a more strict appraisal process.

You may need to get a new title policy if you had one from the past.