Lastly, depending upon the reason the tenant in leaving I may even just cut them loose.

And returning her deposit at this point would be cheaperAlways best to gauge if you are really going to loose money.

The combined rent was about $1k or more and it looked sooo sexy...Then, after several months I came to realize [the hard way] that they were a maintenance nightmare [because they are all about 75 years old] and I had high vacancy and/or non paying tenants in addition to the vandals taking their fair share of copper and other materials.I ended up learning [and loosing] a lot during this process.  

@Chris Bounds you sound like a guy who is committed to this, you're sharp, your plan sounds good, you have a great vendor partner there... go kick some A**!

(I estimated rehab at 35K, but then decided to build an extra bath that cost me additional 15K) Thus, do what your originally planned, otherwise you will loose $.Mistake #3: Paying too much for the property.

I told my partner that if he is contractually bound to the agent, we could be cut out automatically until the contract ends...

Well all this started to work loose and leak a little.So along comes the plumber.

It is important for an investor to understand all those details so they can manage it and not loose their shirt.

First off, I will say that I think there is no definitive right answer here, but I will go against the grain on this one...I have adopted a loose policy (unbeknownst to my renters obviously) where I will waive a late fee IF the tenant has never paid late before.

I don't want to pre-loose a strong contact before I even have them.