You can't be soft and then be mad at the tenant for taking advantage of the fact that you're soft.

This allows for good cash flow should markets go soft, and lets the tenants pay down my mortgage. 

@Jay Hinrichs Hey Jay, I was reading that a year ago approx. 40 of the primary 300 plus (or 200 or more they monitor) US markets were already showing major signs of a 'correction...' but of course nearly ALL of those main metros also have micro demographics therein with neighborhood market maturation stats that are not "the average" brush bristles the faux media tends to paint the "herd" into the corral with, about every decade to get them to 'stampede' for the exit doors, only to get 'slaughtered,' time, and again!

Cig smoke is pretty easy if you replace soft materials (carpet/wall paper) and do a full repaint.

Make sure you remedy any soft spots.

Perry, this is exactly what BiggerPockets is perfect for, I'm not just saying to study the topics within the forums as a brush off, the steps to start really are listed multiple times in multiple threads, there are even threads and blogs of people documenting each step they took in their first and subsequent deals.Read these, Take notes, apply what you learn, be comfortable with the steps, and attack it!

The rental market here is soft.

This pull would be a soft hit and would not affect your credit score. 

You certainly don't want to speak loudly but not so softly spoken that it's hard to communicate and your speech needs to be with confidence.Frankly, all of this is learned behavior (notwithstanding medical issues), so practice!

I think these "soft costs"  would make a short term AirBnB not profitable.