My questions are- what happens if tenant doesn’t pay and you have to evict or, when tenant moves out you discover $20k worth of damages that has to be done before you can rent to next tenant.

A security camera system outside can make you money by allowing you to charge for pets, prove someone was the party who did the damage, more people than on the lease.

There are several landlords that operate off the mindset that its all business and could give a shtt less who it damages but it leads to a vicious cycle of events eventually.  

Years ago we did not provide laundry units to tenants, and found that when tenants had to move their own units in and out, they damaged floors, walls, cabinets, hooked the units up wrong, didn't properly install wiring or dryer venting, etc.

The cord must be in good condition with no cuts, nicks, or other damage.

Houston in particular be vary wary of flood zones and any potential historical water damage from the frequent flooding / hurricanes of just a few years ago. 

There is language in the lease saying that if we move out before July 23rd we forfeit the deposit and are subject to "recovery by the landlord of other damages allowable by law".

Short term is managing cleaners, dealing with guests complaining about cleaners, random **** breaking, reporting damages do Airbnb, seeing a big *** party starting at your house at midnight (your property manager isn’t on call 24/7 and are charging for every hour spent), dealing with pissed off neighbors etc.You need to weigh all those costs (management + cleaners stack) minus potential high weekday vacancy minus Airbnb’s rising fees and declining service plus your time and headache spent, VS an easy / much more guaranteed paycheck.There’s a lot of guru BS in the STR game.

If it is theirs, then they should pay for it to be repaired, but if it is yours, then you are responsible for maintaining it despite what the lease says (the exception being if the tenant damaged it). 

The proximate cause of the leak was physical damage to the water line, I suspect underground if it was in fact irrigation, and thus maintaining and repairing is the owner's responsibility anyway.3.