We also look at doing occasional flips or building houses from ground up.

I have multiple tenants that pay Bi-monthly(it's written into the lease) and I have to send the occasional Pay or Quit notice, but as of right now, I collect 100% rent owed to me, and I haven't had to turnover a property due to lack of payment since one of my first inherited tenants failed to pay.There will always be bad tenants, and there will always be fantastic tenants, but most of us will find, OK tenants, and it's my belief that it's your duty as a property owner to try and work with OK tenants.

Some costs (repair the dish washer, carpet cleaning at unit turnover, etc.) are pretty fixed regardless of rent level.

I still have to occasionally remind my wife that it is all good debt.But never lose site of the fact that investing is still very high risk. 

I appreciate both of you and all of the helpful information that you dish out on BP.

The amount of the fine will either be in your covenants, your rules and regulations or, occasionally, the by-laws. 

I peruse the marketplace ads occasionally.

We had one tenant who had "her mom's dog" for a weekend to dog sit and we settled on charging her a reduced Fee ($100) plus $30/mo to even have the right to have her mom's dog there occasionally (which turned out to be 1-2 days/month)  We also had her sign an additional pet addendum which is very strong about what can and can't be done (and when we can enter the apartment or call animal control)Portion of our lease:If an unauthorized pet is found on the premises a fee of $500 is due immediately for having an non-authorized animal on the premise at the time of occurrence or at landlords discretion.

Not exactly sure how we compare with other areas in Illinois or even out-of-state but enrollment here is continuing to increase and those students need someplace to live, especially the internationals that are just dishing out money like crazy!

I'm doing all the communication right now, I didn't pay the retainer yet and don't want to dish out $1000+ if I don't have to.