They often don't cover issues like guest, pest infestations, rodents and other duties and responsibilites of both parties.You want a lease that is widely used in your State and also been improved incrementally over the years every time an issue came up.

@Salil, I'm self-managing and recently had a flea infestation problem requiring me to drive back and forth 25 miles several times in the last couple weeks before the new tenants could move in on the 1st, which was tricky with my day job.

Not the hardest thing in the world but a serious infestation like that is going to cost well above $1k & take multiple treatments to completely eliminate them all.

In fact, you proclaim that Memphis is shark-infested waters. 

Any experienced investor or manager will tell you if you see 1 dead roach your home is already infested. 

Just after the "myth" that "off market" properties are "good deals"....when it's more likely they're an over priced, issue infested, lien ridden, liability.

Then to walk through them, we experienced alot of termite infestations (which isn't uncommon for AZ, but just surprised us that it was left untreated), and missing pipes and electrical. 

In the past it’s been infested with gangs.

The one thing HUD specializes in is running drug infested slums - you can see that everywhere in the USA!

In my case there were two problems that took a little time to work through: 1) They had a clause which stated that all exterminations for bug infestation were my responsibility during the lease and any loss of rental furniture/housewares provided for the tenant resulting from infestation would be covered by me.