<prompt> Human: Long story short -- I, along with a group of friends, visited a great apartment last week. We put a deposit down and gathered our financial documents as quickly as possible. A couple days later, we were sent the lease agreement, which mentioned a few strange conditions that werent initially disclosed 2 year lease, rather than standard one year, and 3 months rent up-front. We collectively decided to send an email detailing our concerns, and the landlord responded with an invitation to us to sit down and meet with him. The meeting did not go especially well for us as the landlord was not willing to compromise on any of the discussed concerns.Heres what I really want to know -- at the end of the meeting, the landlord returned our security deposit so as not to hold us up while he took a couple of days to make a final decision on the matter. Is this a negotiation tactic that anyone has heard of, or does this likely mean that he has found other tenants that are more happily willing to concede to his requirements? We really, REALLY want the place, but that tactic admittedly threw us off quite a bit. We dont know how to proceed given the outcome of the meeting. Any advice helpful anecdotes experience would be much appreciated. Thanks!  <response>: Landlord here.This is very market dependent. If someone else will give him what he is asking, what he is asking for is not unreasonable.The fact he was happy to hand you back your security deposit tells me he has a very desirable property. 