The reason I pose the question is I constantly read and hear podcasts saying it's unacceptable to allow chronic late payments.    

Amanda Palmer Not an attorney, but according to what I understand, if you don't make effort on contractor fixing it, it will be a weak case.

Understand that those questions are asked for two reasons; 1. to elicit necessary information and 2. to psychologically move the seller from a position of strength to position of weakness. 4. 

you can do nothing down in the very weak markets of the US.. in the strong markets no money no credit as you state is 99% of the time a non starter.one of the best things I think one can do is spend the 400 bucks on a RE license pre licensing test get your license and go to work in the industry... you can earn money as you learn.. for whatever reason in todays day and age.. people just want to go from nothing really nothing about real estate and all of a sudden make money when they have no money.. the two do not correlate other than in the movies.A real estate investor in my mind is one who has great credit capacity ( cash) and ability to find buy and then either value add or rent out for long term holds.I know I started with nothing at 18 got my real estate licesne and I did not buy my first property ( other than my personal resi ) until I was a few years into the business and had proper funding and credit and knowledge to know what a deal was and was not and ability to deal with the public in a positive manner.And I agree 1000 %  95% of those that come on sites like these and introduce themselves as an "investor I am going to wholesale becasue I have no money then when I get money I am going to be a buy and hold investor " never make it and just fade away.. just look at a 2 year old thread on this site you will see very few people that are still here contributing.. they are gone working their day jobs.  

If you have a advantage or see a weakness take it.

Eve, This is our policy on the above:     1, We will only consider wait a month or more if the rental market is weak and we have a very good candidate!     

@Andrew Dwillis  we all have to be honest with ourselves about the weaknesses we have.

Give me a mediocre to poor location typically mom and pop tenants only want to go in at weak rental rates per sq ft.Someone else mentioned hotels.

Weaknesses?

After meeting with the three inherited tenants we soon realized that one seems to be a "professional tenant" (only has a verbal lease, pays $100 less than market rent, and works for a local property management company; which leads me to believe he knows his rights as a tenant and won't budge on anything unless it directly benefits him)The second tenant appears to be a chronic complainer, and the third tenant seems to be no problem at all.I received a call today from the second tenant notifying me that the "professional tenant" who lives below him, is smoking weed and cigarettes in his unit and the smell is travelling to the upper unit and has been affecting his health and quality of living.Apparently in Ontario, smoking in a unit is not grounds for eviction, even if it was stated in a signed lease agreement.