Living in the property for two years likely allowed you to claim the capital gains exclusion... up to $250K for singles or $500K if married.

I think broader consumer taste is killing malls, which includes online shopping, but also even where people are choosing to live and how they are spending their time/money, more broadly.I worked for a company that bought a failing mall back in 2012 (online shopping was "killing retail" then too), redeveloped most of it into more open air power center and sold.  

But choosing a head not to be on one or two may turn out to be the one that gives you activity

To answer your question about maximizing profitability: I choose to invest for equity and forced appreciation.

Point is, there is a new bar being set and if your not operating up to it, we are going to make your listing look like crap and perform like crap because were putting this out to the potential tenants and who'd you pursue and choose?

I’m going to echo what Tim Delaney and Rick Albert said: $8,000 isn’t a lot to work with, no matter where you choose to invest.

There are still people who are either young or fairly unsophisticated with money and choose to not use credit.

This was my first property, and while it's been a great learning experience, I made several mistakes along the way—ranging from choosing a realtor who was more focused on closing the deal than finding the right house to having a poor inspection and overlooking issues hidden beneath the surface (literally).

If they choose to dig in and fight, I watch them like a hawk and document every infraction until I have enough to get rid of them.

You can choose to nonrenew them for no reason at all or for being habitually late.