an electric heater is easier to drain and clean out crap cause the bottom element comes out of the hole and you can see a bit and scrape a bit with like a clothes hanger.

It's also important to note, I think, that tons of people stream across the border on a daily basis and are immediately provided with free homes, free food, free medical care, free clothing, etc... but the elderly (In this regard) seem to fall through the cracks for some reason (according to one of the posts above).

I would go through the stuff, and either donate or sell usable items like clothing and furniture. 

One of my favorite quotes is “beware of any job that requires the purchase of new clothes”.

Sell everything you've got but the clothes on your back, including the dog, and put in applications for every restaurant, grocery store, or fast-food joint within 30 minutes walking time.

As much as I wanted to ignore this request or even worse buy a toaster oven and a dryer line for hang drying clothes, I broke down and spend one month's rent on upgraded appliances. 

You can make adjustments based on the size of the unit, number of occupants, or even the appliances (dishwasher, clothes washer, etc.) but that's usually not that important because the actual water usage is so cheap (only $5.20 in this example for a duplex with two tenants).

The area isn't a high net worth market where they need to see you in designer clothes before you are taken as a serious buyer.  

If I need a respray within 6 months, it's only $75 (not bad).I have a feeling I am going to run into a language barrier issue- one side is Hispanic and speak very little English, and there are quite a few things that the tenants have to do to prepare for tomorrow (dry all their clothes, vacuum, etc.) and I'm worried they won't listen to my wife and the treatments will be useless.

They once offered up the basement for furniture storage for a charity drive... and also used the washing machine to wash about 20 loads of clothing they were going to donate.