I like the idea of offering prospects the A,B,C offers.

This might not only give you the data you seek, but also set you up with some good prospective tenants.  

When confronted, the tenant said that they are fake and only to create the illusion of someone's always watching To deter any wrong doing.

Despite that, there is no universal truth, every investor is different... some considerations:1) Debt can hurt when use speculativelyTaking out loans to purchase the dream property with poor tenant prospects and bad rent-value ratios can put you in a bad place.

They of course left a mess, but luckily it wasn't as bad of a mess as you'd think a $3,900 house would have.Now, normally I'd never buy a 1-bedroom house and I think it being a 1-bedroom house may have deterred other investors away from it. 

So I do plan on doing my due diligence on each prospective tenant, especially since I live out of state.  

(MLS, REO, shefiff auctions, prospecting, newspaper classifies, etc.)

That's a very creative solution from @Kenneth Sok; given that the tenant did not pay the recent month's rent, perhaps it is not the best solution in this case, but I could definitely see the value in talking with the tenant and exploring the issue if you think your prospective buyers might be interested.

The greatest thing is when prospects call and say, "I'm calling because I got your trash can in the mail." 

Specifically subject to and short sales.Both from a legal prospective as well as what you may be experiencing in today's So Cal market.