from the documents a few BP folks sent to me a few years ago. it looked like they were investing in multi beneficiary mortgages IE multiple investors in a fractionalized mortgage.. which can be argued is a security .. in CA they are quite common but you have a specific disclosure document that must be filled out by a real estate broker .. it lets you know who the co investors are.. which is really the rub here.. none of these folks know each other.. and of course this is always the rub in a pooled syndicated investment that goes south.. 

Other than submetering, I'd recommend you ask to see the leases and whether each person has a security deposit that matches their present rent.

I believe they have a subscription system however from what I recall it's a little bit expensive and is not very user friendly.You can pull the public data from the various websites and then go and extrapolate everything, but unless you've got a pretty good programmer who can build out some engines to go scrape everything you will end up doing a lot of that mining manually.

Towson is always in the top 10, thanks to the public schools, colleges, and hospitals there.As to living in Baltimore, I haven't lived there since 1995 and I'm never going back.

Because this deposit typically transfers over to the new tenant's security deposit, should I be charging an amount equal to the security deposit or only a fraction of that amount?

This is pretty simple for your CPA to figure and the depreciation tables are available online in IRS publication 946: How to depreciate property. 

No entry basement conversion complaint .CN196029Post name, address, and telephone of owner, owner's agent for managing, controlling or collecting rents, and any other person managing or controlling building conspicuously where accessible or visible to public way. (13-12-030)Building - No owner's I.D. sign posted .

Private owners are more generous with giving back security deposits, are less likely to raise rent, and free furniture is free furniture!

I would talk to a good securities attorney like @Jillian Sidoti to see what issue you may need to deal with. 

Whereas you would ordinarily indicate earnest money, down payment, financing and total purchase price... in an owner finance deal you would spell out the exact financing terms such as:Seller agrees to finance $x of the purchase price at y% interest over z years, secured by a first lien deed of trust.