The penalties are just too high. 

Understanding your top priorities can help in determining whether Stessa, Baselane, or another tool might best fit your needs.If you're comfortable with apartments.co for rent collection but want higher yields on your cash (this is me reading between the lines) you could have the transfers go into a high yield business account like BlueVine 1.5% interest or something like CapitalOne 3.9%.

High rental demand (Section 8 too).

High rental demand (Section 8 too).

Or we've also been exploring moving to a district with a better high school for the kids in a few years and turning the current place into a rental.

The two are almost entirely different markets in terms of price points, returns, tenant quality, and overall investing strategy.

The challenge was balancing the relationship between landlord/tenant and a personal/friendly relationship.

Honestly, unless you’re in a high-end market where buyers or renters expect it, dropping thousands on a sprinkler system probably isn’t your best ROI move—especially if the property has been sitting for months.

@JD Martin agree 10,000%What I am surprised about is I had a call with someone in Austin today and in sw Florida and they both said things are awful and prices are dropping at high rates - curious don't hear as much chatter here about that as it could be an opportunity 

Rates are too high.