The tenant has gotten a lot better at managing expenses over the past year or so and rent has been a lot more regular.

Good fresh paint job and cleaning.If the house is lower income then a larger expense on renovation will most likely not be inline with the return.  

There might be no cashflow leftover after expenses for your share.

Luckily my wife has been saving for about 25 years and even though school now is pretty expensive we are still getting by.  

It produces beautiful expense reports by property.  

They are very expensive. 

I would say cut your expenses down to the bare minimum and pay off the student debt.

I avoid the rough areas and the expensive areas generally don't provide a good return. 

More employed people with lower expenses means they have more wiggle room to rent a nicer place.Sara also mentioned looking at whether or not new businesses or franchises have opened nearby, which is a great tip if you are looking for up-and-coming neighborhoods.

b) deposit back (though they consented to having us either sell/rent and deposit covered the properties expenses to get sold/rented...closing and other costs to sell exceeded deposit)?