Even after spending a long time researching and reading beforehand, it can still be a shock when you start showing the rental and discover what type of people and mentality you're dealing with.

Hmmm I think I got bit by the "Preview" then forget to "Post" mental-disconnect again.

Now, in reality, many of the tenants have certian personality problems or mental issues, a contributing reason why some are in the program, these people may be difficult to deal with at times, but you are in control.

Sarah, My first suggestion is to change your mental attitude about lease options.

This guy is 31, is on full disability and had a 'mental breakdown' 2 years ago according to his mom (contacted her from the background check I ran on him.)

actually Ryan, I'm speaking from past experience and as a result i've been concrntrating more on my musical endeavors which, even though they're not lucrative yet, it's a lot more enjoyable and fun than real estate...I don't miss talking to apathetic buyers and unmotivated sellers..i'll leave that for the masochists, it's not worth making money at the expense of my mental health..lol

Oh Great.. as their rentals don't cashflow after maintenance...See, when you get good at becoming a dealmaker then a new deal is around the corner...You get rid of the scarcity mentality and don't latch on to each deal as if its your last...And then after awhile you graduate to creating a business around your dealmaking strategies...And that produces cash...then you cherry pick deals to keep in your personal portfolio...The object being to get a some free and clear assets...

If I had blindly adopted the tough guy eviction mentality I would have missed out on all those years of hassle free tenants and zero vacancy.

This gives them the mentality that "oh im not paying for it, ill leave the AC at 62 for 4 of the hottest months of the summer."

After all, we spend a lot of time thinking about deferring taxes, but it is likely that at some point your mentality must flip to minimize your taxes (not just deferring them) and sometimes that means if you stop working that you start to move some deferred income through your tax return.You also have some flexibility to borrow against your properties to smooth out some of your needs in retirements and reduce your payments to Uncle Sam.