I recently have a new tenant who has been there for a month and wants a new fridge, wants me to add a new light switch to the bathroom to turn off fan exhaust to save money on electricity, wants me to buy new door alarms.The fridge is functional and working, he is upset that the insides bend a little when he puts a lot of food in there.

Don't get me wrong people still travel but just not as much volume as when they first come into money unless that is their main thing they love to do.Most small business and medium have gross profit of 10% these days for food.

They have no trash service so they accumulate it in their back deck and they have not bothered to clean their fridge so food is rotting for weeks now (no power means no cold fridge) It is stinking in the house, you can imagine the toilets without water.

Will have 4K a month cash flow after regular life bills are paid (food,etc).What is the best thing to do with that 4K cash flow?.....

You may cook what's in my refrigerator or eat what I cook or bring your own food to cook.

Our contractor is suggesting we leave a small gap of ~3" from the wall to where our cabinets and appliances would come, but our concern is that this would lead to food/water falling through the large crack and being hard to retrieve/clean.

Her situation is chaotic and she may be forced to choose food over rent.

At that point you'd have to analyze exactly what you want, do you sell and buy a bigger home for you and your family, sell it to invest in better properties, keep it as rental, keep it as a rental and perhaps get a HELOC or Home Equity loan to invest in another property with the proceeds.Hopefully this gives you some food for thought.

@Mike Hillman  I think this has been  a progression as well many of these hedge funds entered the C D space because of super low price points only to fall into the same trap private non local investors fall into.. those props are tough.so they moved up the food chain buying nicer product and as stated buying entire housing developments.

Too many red flags.If we subsidize someone's "right" to own a home, why not subsidize their "right" to food, clothing, transportation, and everything else?