A few days after the auction, the occupant filled the house with natural gas, lit a cigarette in an attempt to commit suicide, and blew the house to smithereens!

Experiencing tenant with clutter in lanai stacked floor to ceiling seen from the street.Since I have many tenants, I feel like I should make it a letter that everyone receives and include all current complaints that I have (all were covered in lease - but previous management was lax) plus I want to charge for infractions monthly because all units are severely under-rented:1. clutter seen from street $1502. uninsured, unlicensed vehicles stored on property $1503. pet not on lease $1504. cigarettes on ground within 30 feet of door $1505. not replacing filter $50 (send monthly photos as proof)6. not maintaining property $200Tips for me?

Off the top of my head and keeping in mind that we all have standards that may not be strictly legal would you reject some of these :Neck and facial tattoos, single guys, recently separated women, single mothers, welfare, restaurant workers, nationalities know to cook offensive smelling food, smokers, low income immigrants, bikers, tattoo artists, recreational drug users, prostitutes. others.Or based on human rights laws etc. is everyone welcome as long as they pass basic screening standards. 

The Memphis Area ranks last for personal savings and is where the Chapter 13 bankruptcy was invented.You can legally discriminate against smokers or attorneys for example.

Newspaper ads are inexpensive.Note: develop your rental policy to avoid people wasting your time (3x rent, pets, smokers, application fee, proof of income, credit/criminal background, etc.)

I accept short-term.I don't accept smokers, pets, or evictions, or people on probation.

You can look into a smoke outside only policy, but it is hard to make a leopard change their spots (if they have been smoking inside for years, good luck changing the behavior)...If you want to go no smoking at all,  you could just give notice with month to month or not renew when the lease ends, but the inside smokers can create quite a lot of work on the turnovers so you have all that work now (when closing taps your cash) and an early vacancy plus losing a good payer...Maybe get inside and assess the unit and behavior some and consider if it workable another year or more (who knows they could stay years) or if you need too make a change.

To be fair to your tenants, smokers need a place.  

I would never make an outside smoking area- cigarette butts suck and you will only encourage renting to smokers.

Smokers are not a protected class.If you care about maintaining good landlord-tenant relationships and maintaing your property, you are likely to attract the type of tenant you desire.