The previous folks left in kind of a hurry and managed to get the walls primed but the swirls, dots, names, and handprints were still clearly visible. Of course, we LIKED the colors they chose for the living room (a dark olive brown) and the kitchen/dining room/hallway (a butter yellow) and had requested those be left alone when the painter came in to make everything basic white, again. That almost didn’t happen, either, but a rain-delay combined with my habit of nagging following-up with the agent saved the painting bacon on that one!
As for the co-op deposits, they wanted the equivalent of 2 months service plus a flat fee, if I recall correctly, and it really was $450 at first glance. Thankfully the exception was if you got a letter of credit from your current utility provider, which I did, and that brought it to a more reasonable $45 or some such. The up-side to the co-op was generally cheaper utility costs and the possibility, on down the line, of receiving dividends/refunds if there was any leftover after the final accounting for that year.