Revealing to anyone, other than another investor, that you own an apartment building-well nothing good will come from that! 

With that said, would HomeGoods, Wayfair, AFW, perhaps GoodWill are good places to consider in buying furniture?

 $1 per pound cheaper than hamburger.  95% leanBuy all your shirts for $2 and pants for $6 at goodwill. 

My reason like yours is to try to generate longer term tenancies and better feelings of good will.

For any of the items left behind that are in decent condition do you try to sell or donate to Goodwill?

I think as an act of good will, we will give them the offer to pay the cost up front (and maybe offer a 10% discount if the do as we didn't fully prepare them for the expense), or spread the cost over the upcoming year (or the remainder of their lease term, as one has the end (hopefully a renewal) coming up late next year).I love the idea of sharing the capital improvements plan with tenants - knowing this is an every 4-5 year thing, knowing we may have another project coming up, etc. etc.

The goal here is brand awareness, getting people over to your website and ultimately creating goodwill with someone that has fallen on hard times.Step 4- You now have an audience at your disposal in Facebook from everyone that read your blog post and have positioned yourself in the mind of the seller that you are not a greedy savage like the 10 other investors that called them and sent them junk mail today.Step 5- Continue the dance...

You have a lot of flexibility here especially as an owner occupant.Ask them to self report, qualify them  (I'm assuming you are meeting them) and then say they are accepted pending successful completion of the $40 background check.Maybe even refund the $40 after passing as a gesture of goodwill?

I also lower the rent they have by $50 to account for their lower end of their projected rent.so far so good. Will

I think our team used an app that lays it out for you so you guys could get an idea of the layout, but definitely have a professional verify that the tax assessor info is correct.Lastly, I'm glad to hear you say that regardless of reputation or good will, that is not enough to buy.