Many of the OTAs and lead gen sites, like Furnished Finder, are pushing credit card payments. 99.9% of the time I get a message from FF saying 'your tenant would prefer to pay by credit card so activate Stripe now!' 

We are still using some towels after 7 years of use as well as all the sheets since we started.The key to those is washing them right.

How do you push your listing to multiple channels is the first job, then automating lead processing second. 

Keep pushing and good luck to you on your journey!

While that would be nice to build up a lot of money and save, however that would just push me back even further from starting my real estate future plans, careers, family, etc.

I've had them long enough to keep pushing up rents so that I am at the top of my niche, but know not to exceed it because I'm just about at the point where if I raised rents another $50-$100 I'd be crossing over into the lower end for larger units.

@Jonathan Bombaci recommend using that amount as a bargaining chip for lower rates.80% of evictions are wash, rinse, repeat. 

Was he really involved in your deals?

Another issue I had with him was he did not priortize my needs at urgent times during my transaction with him.

It's up to you how far to take this though.When we're faced with this, we try to hold the tenants accountable, by pushing hard to do self-showings.- Who better to show the house and speak positively about than a current tenant?