What are the options when paying for an apartment/condo lease and initial deposit? Do they accept a foreign credit card or does it have to be a wire or cash?

That is 100% dependant on the seller. Private sellers will most certainly NOT accept any cards, as they don't have a contract with a credit card company. Companies might accept cards, but might charge a fee for that, because their bank charges them a fee as well for the processing.

1 hour ago, InlandSea said:

What are the options when paying for an apartment/condo lease and initial deposit? Do they accept a foreign credit card or does it have to be a wire or cash?

In Bangkok I used to pay for my condo with a credit card and collect cash back. Not easy to find though unless you book through AirBnb and pay directly to AirBnb. 

As above, most landlords will be private and wont have credit card facilities. If you rent through an agent, and they take cards, they will most likely add on the 2-3% merchant fee.

Nowadays most landlords probably want the rent to be paid by bank transfer. The initial payment is often in cash when moving in, but with instant bank transfers using an app, that's been shifting towards that option, too. I don't think many landlords would be willing and able to accept credit card payments. 

Why would a landlord eat 2-3% cost every month?

 

Too funny.