REI is not the same as betting on global companies to make it.  

Wonderful insights here from everybody.If the global economic situation were not so dire, it would be comic !

If is for this reason we typically rent month-to-month to our foreign students {it is also typically their preference}.With our Chinese students in particular, we have found that meeting their obligations (i.e. paying their rent on time) has a large honour factor behind it and many would go without 3-meals/day before they would fail to pay rent.To put it in context, if our Canadian students - or our native born rental population in general - were as dependable as our foreign students, we would almost never have an eviction.

I just wonder how many of them were spent trying to prove not all Canadians are nice people.I'm kidding, really Greg - I know you're a sharp guy, and I appreciate your input.

Yeah, Penny, in Canada, it's much harder to screen tenants, from what I've heard (have Canadian real estate agent friend.)  

I have a Canadian Dentist offering to pay me 6 months up front my rental is in Gainesville Florida. 

Any short fall in court fees, rent or damages that exceeds the security deposit may be claimed through Small Claims court (another relatively simple process) but collecting will be difficult since we cannot garnish salary here, unlike in most Canadian provinces.Being there, done that.

Must be a Canadian thing - there is no place in the United States where it would not be legal to either directly meter from the utility or submeter a tenants usage.

I bought a house close to a railroad track when that's all I could afford in WA state on the Canadian border.  

@Wesley Davenport I don't know that a Canadian landlord could say with certainty what a Section 8 tenant would or would not do.