As the money is made on the buy, finding a good value is key and not getting sucked into the "I need a deal" mentality that often pushes people past economic sense or scope of work on their reno budgets.

You have 1 month to make $5,000.
Here's the rules: You don't own a business and you're unemployed. You have no assets to sell and $100 on hand. You don't have a vehicle but can temporarily borrow one every other day ...

If you have project where you are spending over $15k you need to prioritize what to spend time and energy on instead of having a meltdown over $3.  

But my wife mainly feels that we have had enough and with a newborn daughter around, want me to be present mentally around.

It will depend on your ability, mentally, to separate the two from eachother. 

Local laws often prohibit pools of certain sizes without proper fencing too.Of course the problem here is that they prioritize buying a pool over paying rent.

I dont see how this city is going to turn around if the mentality of the people don't change or some fresh blood comes in.

I've seen many put all of these things together and just expect business to land in their lap with a "If you build it, they will come" sort of mentality.

I'm losing a great tenant because of this neighbor, & I'm afraid of this situation happening again if I re-rent.I suspect the neighbor has a mental health issue. 

For example the mental leap from raising rent $100 was that the kids could become homeless.Even if they did need the money, not sure that would be the deciding factor in what they chose to do.