Now, in an attempt at fairness, most 'independent landlords' may refer to boomers who bought a house they cannot afford and are renting out half of it for whatever price makes up for their budget shortfall after they lost their job or their retirement investment strategy didnt pan out. Their house is of course ancient, in dire need of repair, which thwy will expect you to repair for them, as well as do other errands for them. Such homes are usually near nothing interesting or useful, so you better own a car and love 2 hour commutes each way, OR its in an extremely sketch neighborhood. And they will complain and kick you out if you happen to have any kind of a social life in the living area you pay them to live in, or do anything like listen to music they dont like, or have opinions they disagree with.

Or maybe independent landlord refers to people who just did the Dave Ramsey thing and pivoted one rental property into maybe 10, who are also now all basically underwater on their debt financing as it turns out they are /not/ financial geniuses, and are also just charging rent to make the debt payments as well as a healthy chunk to live off of. These are the kinds of people who will evict you for anything at all they dont like about you /unless you agree to pay illegal fines for made up violations of made up laws/ and will generally never do anything they are required by law as landlords to do or provide for the property or tenants.

For both of these groups you will never, ever get your deposit back, they always find a way.