I'd like to get this taken care of and also replace the upstairs shower fixtures and the upstairs toilet with a dual flush toilet. 

You also will not succeed if you attempt to make them pay for repairs that are technically their fault (flushing baby wipes down the toilet and clogging the sewer, for example).

That is you flushing money down the toilet!!

If you look at margins nationwide California,Parts of Florida,New York,etc. are all speculative.I remember a 4 or 5 years back in Miami there would be only so many condos being built and sold in a development.The investors would pay a homeless person (no joke) 100 bucks a day to stay in the line for them.They would buy up units and then immediately maybe in 1 to 2 months flip them for almost double.The markets were totally crazy then.Same stuff in Cali where brokers were telling me trailers were going for 750,000.So some of these investors that bought and made a ton along with foreign investors are ready to play the speculation game.They are not really in it for the cash flow.They already have a nice portfolio and chunks of cash to allocate funds to speculative investments and if they don't all margin out they will be fine.Speculating is fine if you have the money to lose and still be flush with cash.So these speculative markets have very wild swings in values.First to tank down hard and first usually to start going back up.In Georgia we have more moderate peaks and dips.So with some appreciation back but not huge swings in the future you need the cash flow as part of the deal.I don't like speculation just the hard numbers.I will speculate to a degree on land for future commercial development but I won't buy a house that loses money every month just on the potential of appreciation in the future.

Theses days there are other brands where the float operation is not a ball on a rod, and some even have dual flush (less water used to flush pee). 

While I was there, I would flush the others and at least look at them.   

I'm tired of flushing rent money down the drain every month, but 18 months probably wouldn't be long enough to cover closing costs, unless I'm able to force a heck of a lot of equity.

We are just finishing drywall on a full gut reno of an 1100 - 1200 ft^2 2-story unit and have already had two people approach us and take-away applications to rent it.One question though:  Why renovate the entire bathroom and not replace the flush with a newer, Watersense compliant model?

Also, I read somewhere that a toilet, when flushed, sprays a super-fine mist of toilet water on everything.

Your not dealing with hud.. single mother 4 kids type of properties which are management intense and not generally recommended without PMso cut that out of the equation.. then just look at  1 month vacancy... your actual expenses. put in 2k a year for maintenance cap ex that should be sufficient and see where it shakes out  Tax's and insurance of course so your 3250 rent my flush out like this200  maintenance  capex200 tax100 insruacne200 vacancy1800  mortgage   =  2500 a month   add another 250 for contingency and your at 2750 or 500 a month positive and maybe your at 750.. with a west coast asset that should be much eaiser to handle than many others.. ( I say should) never a sure thing.