Yet another reason I want to sell the trailer. 

I stopped reading after reading your subject line...know this:The #1 reason why landlords fail is due to their failure to manage to the lease (Source: American Apartment Owners' Assn). 

My answer won't be, and for two reasons.

We have rented the long term unit to family friends for over a year and the bills were always reasonable.

True although the fires this year just adds to the reasons to leave California (excessive taxation and regulation, overbearing political correctness, downtowns littered with feces, etc.).

Not for any reason, I just didn't think of it... and they had asked for dimensions of the cabinets to replace the fridge anyway. 

If the applicant comes from the pool of people that I or my tenants know, I use real estate as a way to give back as many of my tenants will not qualify credit wise or may even have a criminal background or would struggle for another reason if I were to just stick to the "background/credit check" criteria. 

At the pro forma income, the cap rate would rise to 8%, which is more reasonable but only achievable after renovations.

I went with the conventional option for a few reasons, but that's not the best choice for everyone.

And they'll want you to pay off the loan pretty soon (and usually will you as the rate will probably be higher than banks) so there's that too.For this reason, we definitely prefer private lenders as they will (if you've built trust with them) often lend on the rehab too.