Like someone that would not likely walk off and leave you holding the bag?

We ride bicycles about 100 miles every week and almost every week we stop at Nordstroms so my wife can get bag loads of Shiseido makeup.

I've had two occasions where the reference they listed told me not to rent to them because they were violent, late payers, or too needy.Not doing a criminal, credit, background check, which might have revealed criminal or credit problemsBeing slow to evict (mentioned by others)Believing their sob storiesAccepting partial paymentsFailing to document every conversation or interactionNot walking through the property to make sure they're taking care of it (I now walk through every 9 months so I can see problems in different seasons)We've found crack pipes and other paraphernalia after they moved outWe've discovered piles and piles of trash (some bagged, some not) in closets, basements, sheds when trash cans and pickup service are included in their rent - all they had to do was carry it out, at no cost to themWe've Found smokers, pets, extra peopleOverall, I've had great success as a property investor. 

Also am about completing my book on real estate but still don't want to let the cat out of the bag for now because massive work needs to be done to get it to the right people.

If not I will ride it out for 5 more and bag it at 60.I love the opportunity and I love being a landlord- but if I can trade what I work for now for real passive income- no brainer.

.  :/  It is a long story of how we figured it out, but essentially bags over the smoke detectors and drug paraphernalia in the trash gave the situation away. 

On your next day off want you to pack your bags for an overnight trip.  

Few weeks later I see a beautiful Benz parked in front of the house with a big "for sale open house" sign on it so I go in and talk to the guy and ask him how he did it and his answer was: "Easy, I showed up with a bag of cash in my hand."

If you want to do some kind of hybrid model you potentially could do that and bill back utilities, but I think that puts you more at risk of holding the bag if something goes wrong....like you expect rent on the 1st, you bill them back $400-$500 for last month's utilities and then they don't pay either. 

If it were my sister, I would travel to her location TODAY with a pistol, lead pipe, and a bag of jerky because I really like jerky on road trips.