You almost certainly will lose any deposit you were required to put up, and depending on where you are attending the court house auction it could be that you lose the full bid amount (might as well just take the property if that is the case).

.- Complete rental license required fixes (if necessary).Leasing:- Create rental policies document, and application document- Create Lease document- Take pictures- Place ads on craigslist and on Zillow- Book showings- Take applications- Screen applicants- Select applicant- sign leases, take deposit- Move-in walk through checklist- Take the family out for diner to celebrate!

My property manager does everything electronically and deposits my money directly into my bank account, so the fact that I now live over 1000 miles away is not an issue.

Free online payment options are available or you could have the tenant set up direct deposit into your account for free.

The security deposit covered damages. 

Think of all the things that could go wrong and see if the lease addresses them: unauthorized pets or tenants, early termination, security deposit, lease violations, late rent, eviction, lawn maintenance, parking, etc.5.

I mobile deposit when they pay me with a check.

If the place isn't clean, pay for professional cleaning and deduct it from the deposit (did you have a walk-through before they left?).

Not actual extra money out of my pocket,  but saying things like if they're out within two weeks, they get all of their deposit back (even if there was a couple hundred in cleaning and damages).  

We too had reservations about this process because the tenant could easily just back out and say they are not ready to purchase the house at the end of their lease so our lawyer put in the contract that the tenants would need to front $15,000 when signing the contract as a deposit on the house (which we put in an interest bearing account).