While tenants are responsible for pest control issues, we do have to owner's handle wildlife entry like squirrels, raccoons, possum, etc.

Fear is not always a negative thing, as it’s a mechanism used to keep us from doing things that harm ourselves.

Can anyone let me know if this is a wise idea or if paying this off early may do more harm then good? 

Keep the grass mowed and landscaping in good shape.Also, we bought a wildlife camera for $100 on Amazon and position it where we want to watch activity.  

The challenge is that if you are not keeping up and know these laws you are putting yourself and your investments in potential harm .

That seems really risky to me, as the penalties for landlords can be very stiff if lead paint is found on the premises, and especially if a tenant can prove they were harmed by it. 

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

It can be very harmful to pass along false information regarding the legality issues so please do your research before posting things like this.

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

If you have had financial harm, deception, fraud, etc, done there is no cost to join our case, we have funded it ourselves to help the rest of you out who may not be able to.