Really curious why investors purchase income properties, is it so you can live off the cash flow for retirement, fund your children's college tuition, quit your day job or maybe some other reason?  

Here's an NY Times article relevant to this discussion:  Don't let your children grow up to be farmers.

For that price you could have all the furniture and appliances that are still in the house.

Get them to make an emotional investment by identifying with stories in your letters.I would rather create my list and drill down to a small handful of people who have a "perfect storm" of problems: foreclosure, marital problems, adult children problems, big health issues, financial pressure, code enforcement citations; as many as you can find at one time.

No big troubles, good tenant - a woman with children.

More than that, I want to be able to give back to my community by helping other children that need a positive role model as well as healthy food to eat after school. 

As mentioned, staging does sell houses and if you're going to be doing more of them, investing in some furniture and accessories OR having it staged really does help and that's something I personally learned the hard way!

Maybe add in to the lease that all police reports involving problems caused by tenants, or their guests, will result in a $100 fine, to be donated to a charity benefiting police widows and children.

Just for those who are wondering I am happily remarried and all my children live with me.

So I recieved a call from one of my Guerilla Marketing strategies (slipped business card in the door of a property thats an estate sale) ..I talked to the son of the deceased and he told me a little bit about what was going on and what the issues are. ( many properties, many children and no one agrees )..The property has been listed  for about 3 months along with a couple of other properties that needs to be sold too. ( All of the properties are WAYYYY overpriced )  Since there was much bickering they decided to let an attorney handle .