Just like if the landlord pays utilities or lawn care or snow removal or whatever maintenance needs to be done....its an expense..... you get the tenant to pay it via rent or you eat the cost yourselfWhen you leave those types of tasks to the tenant you take on the risk that they will either not be done or will not be done properly... that's on you.

That would, of course, eat into the cash flow to the tube of about $375 per month.

Can I increase the rent or do I need to eat the cost?

Eating your seed corn

Verbally, I say that if it's not toilet paper and they didn't eat it first, it doesn't get flushed.

I'd ideally like a combination of both, but I guess it's even harder to have your cake and eat it too.

You can raise the value of the home if it's doable and pay the closing costs but if it's short and you are using the same % on closing costs the lesser appraised value will eat away from your original 84.8K value.

You're welcome to do either/or, but right now you're trying to have your cake (be nice and "fair" to everyone) and eat it too (make money). 

You're generally expecting to eat the cost for shampooing or replacing old carpets, freshly paint the walls, etc.

Mold grows deep, don’t trim it off the cheese in your refrigerator and eat the rest that looks fine.