I have one floor plan in my project that is set up for this.. out of 90 homes we have built  we only sold 4 of them .  

Put language in your lease about use of the screen for all fires.I always made it the tenant's responsibility to have the chimney cleaned at least once per year for the built in fireplaces and twice per year for the store bought types as they have smaller chimney piping.  

At AHP, we sometimes see clean out estimates of $3,000 - 4,000 and know well that a local investor could probably get the work done for $500.                                                                                                                                                                                                  

So I offered to pay for the flight, if they returned a clean and empty house.

I've already renovated one of the bathrooms, and I’m planning to paint the interior, update the kitchen cabinets, possibly sand the wood floors, build a fence is a corner lot and increase the rent for the room since my tenant is currently renting the entire 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house for $800 a month.

More like  2X to 5X the cash out.. these are done with builder developers on their deals So put out 300k get 300k back in profit plus the interest rate. most small builders/ developers need to have a equity partner so you just do both you lend the money and are the equity partner.. pretty clean..

I take a percent off of total top line (including cleaning fees) that is 5-10% less than what a local "hands on" operator would charge.

Build a local team for cleaning and repairs to streamline operations.

Faux wood floors, new blinds.

They extensively damaged the property from floor to ceiling.