It may just be a habit with them now.  

Gino Wickman just came out with another book called Entrepreneurial Leap and he mentions 6 essential habits. 

Also, if they have bad spending habits then shortening the 'saving' time from 30 days down to 15 days can be helpful.

The tenants that do that show their habits pretty quickly usually.

While you can definitely participate in those programs, it is even more vital for you to gauge your finances and not overextend yourself in these purchases.

It represents the thing people with the money habits I'm describing most despise, the unexpected or gotcha-fee expense they believe is likely UNFAIR.

Even better if the tenant has had the utilities cut off for non payment the the house is not habitable and I just call code enforcement and they can have them out in 48 hours. 

There are few companies out there who have an appetite in general for habitation. 

Inexperienced investors tend to (1) get exited about deals without having the experience, knowledge or ability to properly determine if indeed the deal is good, bad or mediocre, (2) take what the seller says as gospel not realizing most sellers will exaggerate, lie and or withhold vital information to get what they want, (3) engage people who will provide opinions for free rather than pay a competent professional, (4) get emotionally caught up in the deal and very defensive when receiving an opinion or information that doesn’t support their dream, and rationalize that more experienced people who point out flaws are “jealous, negative or haters”.Btw, no one can provide any knowledgeable answers to your questions without first analyzing the deal, your ability to come up with a down payment, your credit capacity and banking relations, if you have a track record, your experience with similar property ownership, etc.

Having a strong pool of competent contractors was vital.