It looks like in an attempt to provide customer service, you have empowered your new tenants to dictate new terms of the agreement. 

Very few salespersons are actually empowered to negotiate their commissions on buy sides. 

I posted this in the General Real Estate forum area yesterday - then found this category (so sorry for the duplicate - I only found this section from doing a search today)We started a new group to connect, provide synergy, and keep investors based in Billings, Montana in the know to empower our community of savvy REI for better investing opportunities and growth.• Apartments • SFR (Single Family Rentals)• STR (Short Term Rentals)• Fix / Flips• Buy / Hold• Syndications • LendersLIVE MEETINGS will start when we have 12 active group members who are ready to build some synergy.https://www.facebook.com/group...

The lease option / rent to own confuses the owner as to who is actually in charge.The tenant also gets confused since they are partially empowered as a homeowner...pepto-pink wall paint appeal to the daughter, why not!

They dedicate there energies to finding those few like myself and rest happy that all they need to do is empower our actions and directions and with that have a fire-hose of opportunity on-demand.

The argument your using here is the exact same argument that has empowered Dictators and Tyrants for generations.

My scenario is different.I am the commercial real estate broker and owner of my company.So I have my listings and buyer clients I work with which brings in a certain amount and then I have my own properties I purchase as an investor myself.As a broker once you have your own investments bringing in income you can pick and choose who you want as clients on the real estate brokerage side.It's empowering at a listing when the seller knows you are not DESPERATE for a listing and you are in demand.They want to choose you because you get results and not because you agree with everything they say.What anyone needs to start is relative to income coming in and family and life demands.For instance if someone has racked up 80,000 in credit card debt on stupid stuff they have nobody to blame but themselves.In my state of Georgia 30,000 a year isn't that bad as cost of living is really low.In some other states 30,000 would just last a few months.So that is how I run my business as I explained above.I try to train agents to help them out but I find they don't have the "fire in their belly" to change their lives.With investing you have to have a "whatever it takes" mentality.

They generally want to deal directly with a real person who is empowered to make decisions.

I have an empower retirement account through my employer in which the employer matches my investment to a certain percentage.

That is really great advice, and doing some work yourself can empower you as a landlord, too.