Of course my parents good intentions never panned out as tenants would just get what they could "rent for free" for as long as they could and when they were able to they would vacate in the middle of the night.  

In short, here is how everything panned out:1.

There is some amount of positive that you need to have in order to be prepared for some bigger expenses such as replacing a roof, water heater or a re-pipe or just new toilets in general.

Another box had things like Hustler magazines, cigars, toilet paper, candy, beef jerky. 

It is hard for a tenant to cause water problems, unless it is an overflowing toilet or taking showers without the curtain closed.

I had a tenant once that had a leak in his toilet, water was coming from underneath the toilet,a light amount but consistently all day and night.

Will depend on the person's intentions and if they pan out.

I guess I am going to have to see what pans out at this point. 

I am mailing consistently on those because I know they will pan out.... or they will finally call and tell me to go pound sand.

In fact my out of pocket expenses were only to cover what COULD have been appliance malfunctions in two separate appliances and a shattered toilet.