the upper tenant had liquor bottles and a tipped over chair AND... a bag of weed laying out on the coffee table!

You'll bag this one, fingers crossed.

Kyle Weimer - Still have yet to bag my first cash cow rental so I can't share the feeling.

I guess he expects that you don't know that a "post hole digger" costs $50 at Home Depot.He probably also expects that you don't know that adding 6" extra concrete to a 1 foot diameter hole requires less than a half of an 80 pound bag of concrete. 24 of these holes (8 x 3 buildings) would require about 15 extra 80 pound bags of concrete.You can get those at Home Depot for about $4/bag, or about $60 extra dollars for 15 of them.That means the extra materials for the job total around $110.How much is he charging you for the extra work?

Alternatively, keep binding your time ... accumulate a bigger bag of cash and wait for the prices in TO to tumble the 30-40% they need ... then swoop-in and purchase a 3-4 unit building close to downtown {there will be folks upside-down who need to get out}.In either case, find yourself someone local who knows the TO rental market - either a landlord or a realtor - who can help you get your feet wet w/o taking a complete bath.

Let's say you pay for a pro treatment and your tenant took a purse, book bag, or simply didn't leave the house naked that morning.

Here is hoping Brandon won't "bag" on me because I am from the Detroit area...northern Oakland County to be specific.

One currently vacant may get over that - base rent of $875, 3 pets at $25/mo each, plus rolling in water sewer garbage (a good idea in low income, since they leave you holding the bag at move out and the city doesn't care), but not sure that counts.Anyway, we always laugh that we are doing all this work and only earning $15K/ year.

Once we have selected a tenant and they have accepted our offer to rent, then we must take the time to put together the contract, the move-in information packet, and the bag/bucket of move-in gifts.

If you do decide to DIY, you should be able to get a free rental on the insulation blower if you buy enough bags of insulation from the building supply store.