Oh, I forgot to mention, the market rent for renting out my house as a unit is around $2200-2500/mo (that’s what the other owners list for), whereas as individual rooms on 1 year leases, the same house is worth $3500/mo.Overall, not withstanding how much you have to put down with the VA (0-5%?)

I mentioned to the Tenant about signing a new 1 year lease, but they told me they are looking at other apartments and will be moving by Fall. 

Landlord mentioned 2 issues in reply to deposit - 1.

There are a lot of people on here working in the markets you mentioned.

As other mentioned : if she starts babbling on and on about how she was mistreated and how awful her husband was to her then stop her right in her tracks .

Thanks for the mention, @Dmitriy Fomichenko@Josh Dehmlow feel free to reach out with any questions - happy to help!

Every "tenant screening guide" I see mentions running criminal background checks and I don't understand how this would be discriminatory.

In those instances, the owner can avoid all the bankruptcy related issues Mike mentions by withdrawing the bankruptcy, and you may find that solves that issue.

I just mentioned to @Gabriel DeVita that I've been buying in the area for 20 years and deals have never been harder to come by.   

Until that happens this would be a bad idea, not to mention transaction fees are absurd