I wanted to ask for 2 months security deposit  to help protect against something like this happening again and was wondering what other residential landlords are doing in California given the laws favoring the tenant.

The other Realtor will love you since they will double end the deal and get the full commission (don't expect them to give you any favors, though, since they still work for the seller).Good luck with your deal.

Will have the opportunity to go over next week and look at the house and meet him and the sister in person.I've learned my lesson, putting together a phone call checklist right now, but honestly, I think that not having a script or a checklist worked in my favor in this situation.

Do yourself a favor and do a search on AirBnb to see what properties are available in that market and what price they command. 

It is quite difficult to assess what you should do without knowing your goals, so I'd recommend getting as overarching about that as possible, and then getting granular.It seems like you might have a favorable tax-basis situation with the NYC home (obviously verify all of this with the right competent professionals . . . i.e. not me). 

The core Personal Consumption Expenditures price index (better known as the “PCE index”), the inflation indicator favored by the Fed, will come out on Friday (6/26).Calendar:Monday, 6/22: Existing Home SalesTuesday, 6/23: New Home salesFriday, 6/26: Core PCEWeekly Change:10-year Treasury: flat 0.00Dow Jones: rose 600 pointsNASDAQ: rose 400 points

I believe i was listening to the podcast and there was an advertisement with a website that had homes ready to be sold, already rehabbed and they were still selling with very favorable ROI.

They have two things in their favor, os you decide:1) Access to RMLS and can set alerts and2) They spend all day long looking at the RE market and talking with owners.Unless you want to pay that price, I think I'd find a good broker and make friends.In RE, making friends means:1) You have the ability/wherewithal to close deals and can prove it2) You can decide quickly3) You are somewhat loyal.  

This is commonly known in the industry as “double ending it” and is the holy grail of listing agents because they get double the money on the deal.In a tight market some people claim that a buyer can get a slight edge if s/he goes directly to the listing agent since, in a situation with multiple offers, you can imagine the listing agent might be inclined to favor offers where they get to keep both sides of the commission vs. those where they'd have to split it.However, as Mike said, the downside to that is that you lose dedicated representation for someone who's definitely on your side, looking out for your interests, etc.

However, you may be able to secure more favorable financing going the residential route.