We knew the property had an absentee owner who would be wanting/willing to close fast so it made sense to provide them with their perfect solution.

You should do this at least once a month and always monitor the market's movement.If the current tenant is really good and you want to keep them, offer them a renewal with an increase 5-10% below market.

The solution is you aren't going to take care deferred maintenance, if the tenant isn't going to play nice with you.As others have said, learn the law in your area, usually tenants' rights groups have good summaries which I would read before reading the actual code. 

The solution to that problem is that next to our attic there is a small room with a toilet and a shower, which one of our neighbors owns but has not used for a long time.

If you can lower the sales prices and get out this is the easiest solution.

Her solution was to marry Conrad Hilton. 

There is a solution though because there is Non/QM which offers a few programs like (1) year 1099, Bank Statement, and DSCR programs. 1 year 1099 is self-explanatory, Bank statement uses 12 or 24 months bank statements gross deposits and divides that income usually 75% over 12 or 24 months, and DSCR requires No income or job, it uses the rents of the property as income as long as the rent(s) are equal to or greater than the proposed PITI payment.None of the above Non/QM offer construction loans though so you will need to stay W2 or wait 2 years.

., one piece of paper in the driveway), though we did have a bad guest that partied into the night and stole some of my furniture (the pulled the plug on the WiFi so noise monitoring was off).

Savvy listing agents know these are toilet paper.Honestly there just isn't a great solution for folks starting out with deals that Fannie won't touch... maybe that says something about just how risky it is to start with 202-level deals instead of 101-level. 

I like the “you can add a window unit” solution provided the AC is working to its best ability.