I had to spend time cutting some of the metal strike plate so it wouldn't touch it at all. 

Is it resonable if I ask the tenant to pay share of the cost to cover the ground where cat left its waste?

I do that as well. try real estate land development entitlement or getting involved in ground up new construction on infill lots as a partner. the returns are higher than all of these. all cash IRRs are 40%+ to the partners we work with in columbus and levered returns are greater than 100% cash on cash return. that's with us making our cut as well. 

I saw a local investor post a few of his places up for sale - they were bought at a high price, fixed up extremely nice - so I'm guessing the LTR numbers wouldn't cut it. 

She has no clue what she is doing and you shouldn't waste any time trying to train her to be to suck less. 

To me a PM is a waste for small properties unless you have tons of them or don't have any time at all.

I doubt a city would waste their time on that.

Before wasting time looking for properties or spending a lot of time on projects, they should make sure they can get the financing because a) financing might not be available, b) they might not qualify or c) the cost of debt might be prohibitively right.Another mistake investors make is believe that they can apply a US strategy or financing model overseas.

Wasting our VA benefits on a bad property is actually my biggest fear, which is why I'm not sure if we should purchase a home at our next location.

No one will probably tell you they wasted their money on something like this.