There was one podcast that I recently listened to that went into the tenant interview process and provided some huge insight into properly screening tenants to minimize problematic tenant base, I'm hoping this will help in my journey.  

Could be because they've dealt with crappy agents who didn't properly price their property and let it sit on the market forever.

I made a very good living but I foolishly did not manage my money properly.

This is proper financial management and should not have to be making LARGE funds to do this but a good tip.Found this good tip, in a one min. video series of 20 personal finance tips,at vimeo.com/banktv"BANK TV have 20 videos, a 1 min. video series of 20 different bank and personal finance videos/tips.

Replacing a window is a capitalized expense, the landlord is to depreciate that improvement, a residential tenant can not depreciate it and not treating the expense/improvement properly for taxes becomes a matter of filing false returns.

Yes, if you fail to terminate properly you can go into a month to month which may require a different notice requirement.

If you don't know landlord-tenant law for your jurisdiction and the proper way to do a final report on return of deposit, then refund the security deposit.

Me, myself and most successful people have some college, but specific knowledge applied properly will set you up to be rich.  

Learn proper saving habits and spending habits to help ease the process.  

If she does her screening properly a typical deposit and 1 months rent should do fine..