I seem to have a reoccurring problem with tenants in a basement apartment moving in, and their partner lives with them a majority of the time.

This can be automated either from your bank account by setting up reoccurring payments or then by going into the Mortgage companies website and automating the monthly payment there.  

I can't speak towards the hard money lenders piece, but banks and traditional financing will look at the monthly total payment and add that to your reoccurring debts. 

It sound like it was a re-occuring issue.

One of the reoccurring stories I heard was majority of these landlords never set out to be owners and were operators in various  businesses.  

That's is only the reoccurring monthly costs (mortgage payment @ 75% or less LTV, lawn care, common utilities, etc).  

Property Management  - Reoccurring income - Less upside but dependable income typically.

One thing I find very misleading is that they seem to throw a lot of things into Capex, the 9400 series of accounts that I would consider Operational Expenses because they reoccur fairly often.

I put normal reoccurring monthly expenses in my maintenance category, but I know everyone does things differently.

The larger, reoccurring costs are associated with maintaining a license, insurance and affiliation with an association and MLS service that provides you access to the information.