My worst cases were just small sections of garage wall replacements and some baseboards at handyman rates.

As a broker specializing in rental properties for the last 20+ years the worst stories I have heard came from landlords who became friends with their tenants.  

There is no reason it should take 2 months to get that sorted.

There is sort of a East side/West side thing when it comes to investors that almost sounds like the rap battles of the 80's. 

If you do go with a non-connected lock please change the codes often, I often compare it to a hotel in that if the front desk told me the previous occupant's keys still worked during my stay I'd be sort of annoyed.FWIW, we use ResortLock from Lockstate (no affiliation, just what we use) on all our properties. 

There is obviously appreciation and things outside of cashflow but an investment has to have some sort of cashflow.

You could always use those to prove they were smoking up; with that proof you can either move to evict or simply hold security and at least have some sort of proof.If you install a marijuana smoke detector I wouldn't even tell them what it is (aside from a smoke detector) as they might try and disable it.

Thankfully I think that "click bait" of sorts is quieting down a bit. 

(water is your worst enemy outside of vacancy)A: "funny you ask, as you can see the wall is patched but not finished or painted from a leak that happened upstairs, it's been that way for... 6-7 months."

In the worst-case scenario, I might have to deal with negative cash flow and stay in the property longer than planned, delaying my second investment until I find a good solution.