They will pay more, stay longer, be happier, you'll have less vacancy, and you'll make more money.

@Madison Martindale I made the leap in 2018 for the exact same reason got my license and I couldn’t be happier.

I will soon be screening my first potential tenant that was acquired by word of mouth and I was wondering what specific questions to ask the potential tenant other than acquiring information on their credit history, their income, asking for an application fee, doing a background check, speaking with their current employer if they're currently working or have worked in the past, and to speak with their recent landlord if they have one currently or had one in the past. 

Pay to vacate may put a bad taste in your mouth but it’s faster and less costly than going to court with the eviction process.  

But the whole way they handled it left a sour taste in my mouth and I threatened to not close unless they credited the prorated amount.

@Todd Powell Thanks Crazy, but hopefully you’ll be happier at your new W2 job.

Bad word of mouth travels fast.

I think I'm just going to jump in the dragon's mouth, I live in the Los Angeles Area and I'm tired of waiting to see if the RE market dips or drops, should I just jump in and if I get burned I will learn from the experience? 

Our best leads tend to come from word of mouth.

If the agent left a bad taste in your mouth you can always review them on sites like Yelp, Google+, Zillow, etc.