In such cases, if the drafter of the contract writes an unfair clause, which unreasonably benefits the maker of the contract, the court may throw it out.Especially, if they did a high-pressure sales job and kept saying, don't worry about it, it's standard procedure, blah blah.A first-time landlord investing out of state on a limited time to find a manager, and an unreasonable ability to sue that person because of having to travel to another state to do so, could very well be considered the "weaker" party to such a contract.In my ever-so-humble opinion. :-)But, hey, this is why there are two lawyers in a courtroom, right?

A lease won't prevent trouble with a trouble-maker.  

A week passed and on Saturday (again) she called and asked my husband to turn the ice maker back on. 

The tenants are what considered high income maker, and hardly had any saving. 

I don't think you will have any problem.Typically foreign students on visa keep to themselves and are not trouble makers and unlikely to turn your place into a frat house.I would sign the lease with THEM, not their parents.

Meaning that if it's not a money maker today, it might never be a money maker, in most states. 

Not a big money maker, but it helps keep the vacancy low and pays for the communications we need anyway for our monitoring. 

Probably a bad analogy but why is asking for a reasonable maker rate bad.

How do you weed out the trouble makers and partners as suggested in previous posts on this thread?

In fact you could post an add looking for one... something like "looking to by XX size fridge, with working ice maker, must look nice, paying $200" and I bet your phone will blow-up..