At the end of the day the goal should be to make enough to give you an optimum lifestyle but not go overboard and cause yourself more work/hassle if you don't actually need the additional income that comes from it.Increasing the quality of the area/properties should make it easier management wise and if you don't necessarily need the cash flow now could end up ahead in overall return compared to the lower end areas, especially if you use leverage.I think it depends on your source of active income as well and how long you want to continue doing that for.

So, if they offer anything of substance I would take the bird in hand and walk away ahead without dealing with any hassles for months.

My question is: Do I keep the court date and try to get someone to represent me or should I just go ahead and cancel anyways since he has technically left?

Click the bar at the top where it says services, and then click Short term rentals. 

I had one tenant complain that he could never get hot water in his washing machine and that it made a strange clicking sound.

If it will cost you considerably more in the future and loss of appreciation, lose of tax writeoffs and lose of cash flow in the meanwhile, than the amount of debt you are paying off, how does that put you ahead? 

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.

You are way ahead of 99% of real estate investors for the age of 23.

Purchase price: $194,500 Cash invested: $51,000 When we talk about long term rentals the goal is to buy something that people are going to live in 3-5 years with the ability to raise rent over time ahead of insurance, taxes and inflation.

I would have everything outlined ahead of time in a written contract.