Landlording question about attitude

[Cheryl R.]

Is it possible to be a landlord without being "rude" or worse?  I rent houses that are between 1100 and 1400 sq ft and I tend to rent them in what some would call "B" neighborhoods.   They aren't the worst around, but not the best either.   

Here is an example:

 Tenant in place for 3 years starts lagging on rental.   Goes from paying on the 5th to paying on the 10th or later.  After a few months, it is the 18th of the month and I still do not have her rent check, so I send her our state's notice that she needs to pay the rent or be evicted (I am in NC and typically this can and should be sent out much sooner than I did, but since she had been in the house, I did cut her a break).  

She emails back that I am "Rude" and that she has "never been late" on her rent.  I email her the explanation and the expectation.  I tell her that she has in fact, not been on time in her rent payments for four months, and that from this date on, she will get the 10 day notice on the first day I can legally send it.   I sent her a copy of the law that I was following inside the email.  

From that day on, I got the rent on the 10th of the month until the last month she was in the house.  I felt like she was acting like a 2 year old from that point on.  If she knew she could get away with it legally, she did it.    

This is not the first time it happened...I actually had a person tell me they were working.  I called to verify and was told that the person did work there.  The day she moved in, she quit her job and planned to go on disability....which we all know takes forever.  I ended up asking her to move out so that she would not have an eviction on her record, which she did move.... but not after calling me "rude" for expecting to get paid the rent by the 5th of the month ( our state law).  I even saved one of her emails as a laugh. She was a week late already and sent me an email that asked.....

"Hi, I was wondering if I could start paying my rent weekly?".  It would be easier for me to budget that way.  

Should I care that I come across as rude for expecting to be paid?  What do you do to not be called rude?  

ps:  these people were found by a management company for me, and should have been well qualified (I didnt continue to use the management company after finding the tenant"