Tenants should certainly take responsibility for maintaining the property and promptly informing the landlord of any maintenance concerns.

Relationships are key -this off-market deal was found through a longtime realtor friend and my last seller financed deal was through a landlord/client I worked with for several years. 

Not sure how many PMCs you've had bad experiences with, but we'll take exception to:"Then do a thorough research on tenant applicants (note: leaving this to a PM may be hazardous to your financial health)".BP seems to have more threads about screening mistakes by DIY landlords as opposed to PMCs.Now, if you'd have mentioned Maintenance, you'd get no argument from me:) Even the PMC industry acknowledges maintenance as one of the biggest challenges.Rereading my post, I kinda see how I sounded negative toward PMs.  

I know many landlords set a credit score threshold around 580-600 for Section 8 tenants since the program provides a rental guarantee.

Same property listed water bill paid by landlord so how much does it cost to put individual meters for each property so cost can be moved to tenants? 

Having the hard conversations are what define you as a landlord.

Whether it remains an ESA or not, the Landlord has to treat it like they would any service animal.

You want to show them what a nice landlord you are and help them get back on their feet.

I am looking for something geared toward smaller self managing landlords.

I gravitate towards "red states" given the landlord-friendly laws and relative ease of evictions, which unfortunately are unavoidable in the buy and hold game.