And I personally believe it will be a very long time before we ever see something as damaging as 2008/2009 was, hence why I do my best to try and help those fight their investing PTSD. 

The solution I came up with that they accepted was I waived all inspection damages under $5,000, but if the inspection found damaged totaling above that I was still covered.

One of my properties was in the path of Hurricane Florence and while it thankfully didn’t appear to sustain major damage, there’s resulting water stain on the ceiling in the bottom floor.

It had multiple marks but no physical damage.

Are there opportunities that will arise from Hurricane Florence passing through and all of the massive flood damage?

Things went well for the most part, but there was definitely friction in the "owner" mindset bumping up against the "renter" in terms of how rough on things we were, and the risks with seeking compensation for any damage from friends.Overall it's still something I'd recommend.

As you found, a rejected application because of your bad referral means you are stuck with the tenant.Eventually though they will only be able to rent to folks who don't screen, and those are usually the worst places who don't care about bullet holes and pests and rodents and code violations.Don't ever stop your eviction process until they are out of the property and you have keys in hand and have assessed all the damages.

Being a contractor and being a landlord are real close , I get a security deposit up front for damages that havent occured yet .

This a job is to rebuild 4 fire damaged apartments.  

The few hundred dollars it would cost you to sit down with a competent lawyer is likely to save you a lot of brain damage down the road.