@Anthony DooleyLet's consider a hypothetical scenario your tenant on top floor one fine day decides to shower outside of the bath tub  near the toilet causing a wet subfloor and keeps doing it repeatedly until you start seeing leaky ceiling on the lower level floor, would you dismiss it with a "not too broke" argument and endure the repairs out of pocket?

It is semi desert and while it does cool off late afternoon or evening, many are surprised at the temps they will have to endure. 

I absolutely love your story and the level of work and dedication and sacrifice that  you endured to get you to your current place in RE. 

If the tenant fails to pay in full, I would then post notice and get an attorney to provide legal advise.It might be helpful to remind the tenant that if they were the owner of the property, they would have to pay for the repairs AND endure the inconvenience.

As such, when troubles come, they cannot endure the storm.

Despite the struggles Rockford has endured, with a population of 148,278 it is still the third largest city in Illinois and isn’t going away anytime soon.

TERRIBLE experience with them, but the deal was really solid so at the end of the day, I knew it was worth just biting the bullet and enduring the pain.

The ability to think out of the box, creativity, endurance, perseverance, adaptability, personable, a workhorse and so much more!  

Investing in real estate is complex enough from afar, but add in currency moves, political corruption, economies tied to vary narrow industries (export oriented / commodity based), language, unique laws, regulations, taxes, etc, why endure that headache.I've written about this before and won't go into a ton of details but I traveled to many LatAm countries working for Dell and like you, saw opportunities.  

I can't imagine enduring the death of a spouse and I am very sorry for your loss there.