I only allowed the dogs if he would maintain renter's insurance with a $500,000 liability attachment. 

Have you considered bird dogging for another investor or wholesaler as a way to get your feet wet and build up some capital?

Bird dogs, Realtors,  drive for dollars, self canvassing, FSBO calls , bandit signs... all marketing works

I didn't get paid or my mother is sick or I had to take my dog to the vet.

Only issue is that they had 2 big dogs, who used couches to sleep on and couches are left with strong pet odor so much so that my new tenants may be repulsed and might demand new set of couches. 

Hello,A prospective tenant reached out to me and they have a pet , they mentioned it as a small dog.

You hear the big dogs say all the time "getting started is the hardest part."

Anyone looking for a bird dog?

I know people offer this to me all the time.. but the success rate is just so low I feel bad leading someone on that they can make money trying to bird dog deals for us.. right now in the cycle the money is made on the MLS  listings = money.. keep in mind your selling for the highest price much easier to talk someone into listing with you to maximize their return then to try to buy a property far under what it will sell for on the open market.. your pool of sellers is just very very small.. where as your pool of retail sellers is very very large..

Call the contractor and ask how many he expects, for how long, and when, realizing that when may be a soft number.That call might be a call to your bird dog (so to speak), so maybe go visit with 12 pack and leave 10 when you go with some pre-printed maps and rental rate flyers.