We responded and stated that upon inspection, if the property was in clean order, i would release half of it the next day; i explained that the back tenant is not communicating with me and will not let me enter the granny flat so I'm concerned i may need the deposit to evict her. 

So it is like a car transaction in terms of title.But based on the integrity of the numbers involved it should be treated like a real estate transaction.

Take the clean up and damages from the security deposit.

Networking, investor meetings, helping people.If you create value for someone, they'll create value for youBut I shouldn't lie:  doing the closings and being involved in that way probably shows me a lot of them

They aren’t keeping it very clean either and have complained of cockroaches.

Where I can find those tax amounts from an independent source (read: not involved in the RE transaction) in order to analyze the deal?

Then start working , clean up when done .

only you would be able to decide that , everyone has different levels of involvement and different means of "justifying"...

Why not involve them from the beginning?

I use to own a housekeeping business and the move out cleanings were insane.