My biggest hurtle to jumping into REI is finding a reputable and trustworthy realtor and PM that can handle the day to day ins and outs.

One of them of course failed when the tenant was not home, a few thousand dollars later of repairs and we made sure the supply lines were all in good shape...The other tip is for student rentals we started tiling the entire bathroom and adding a floor drain, we also added urinals to any of the bathrooms that had room for it.  

cats seem to be much worse than dogs, and the longer the urine sits, the more damage it does.I would expect you'll have to replace the carpets, pads, and probably a good bit of subfloor.

I have had the misfortune to have to show homes where the owners thought it was fine and dandy to keep the lid open with urine in the toilet, so my vote is to have it down, if you really do need an answer.

I think I see an opportunity but there are a lot of hurtles for me to overcome.

Living room and kitchen, all new carpeting (Maybe even need new flooring) since there dog went to town (urine).

What if I didnt want tenants to have pets -- how would I ever really know if they were following my guidelines until its to late and the baseboards are chewed up and the carpents are urinated on?

She taught me how to look past the peeling wallpaper, the missing appliances and the pet urine smell.

This would be referred to as “urinating into the breeze”.

You got past the first big hurtle in real estate investment, and that is signing up and reaching out to us in BiggerPockets.