One of our tenant X has a dog, who he leaves chained up outside, to what I know from the other neighbors, about 95% of the time, even when he is home.    

We then started keeping our dog food (which was in the house) in a sealed container and asked our tenants to do the same. 

People with big dogs stay a long time. 

That's a good starting point and after a few projects with an investor, you will learn enough to become an investor your self.VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: books, video ,seminars will provide you with motivation and tools to make it in the RE game but the best method will always be learning hands on and with someone to guide.I'm in the NYC market which isn't the best place to start learning so I had to learn fast and perfection in order to compete with these top dogs.

;-)Quiiiiiick Tip ;-)Airbnb is named most often and definitely the top dog in the STR field but I highly advise to list your same listings in TripAdvisor (HolidayLettings), Booking.com and Wimdu.de (The german/european version of Airbnb).

Or the completely warped cabinet that I'm thinking their dog peed on in the kitchen?

The house was pretty nasty, dog and cat urine soaked into the walls rotting some of the framing.  

We also just had yet another surprise request for a service dog (but they have been very good tenants) on a unit that we do not allow animals that we may provide OK for the dog (it has a shared yard so we need to check with other tenants first and if OK with them then we will allow the dog realizing that next tenants into unit without service animal may not be too keen on animal using the shared yard making it harder for us to rent). 

Here's a paste from another post with specifics of how I'm financing with no money down:I bought my primary residence for $168K, and paid the mortgage down like a mad dog. 5 years later, I did a cash out refi (30 yr fixed, 3.9%) for $120K, which paid off the $34K left on the note, and used the dosh to buy an $82K rental duplex.

The structure seems bulletproof, but I wanted to run it by y'all to see if I'm missing something - thanks for any feedback you can offer.I bought my primary residence for $168K, and paid the mortgage down like a mad dog. 5 years later, I did a cash out refi (30 yr fixed, 3.9%) for $120K, which paid off the $34K left on the note, and used the dosh to buy an $82K rental duplex.