The good thing about aluminum siding is that it lasts forever and does not damage easily.

If they don't pay, they'll be sleeping in their car in 18 days, tops.If they have a water leak, I'll be at the property in 15 minutes, shutting the water off.

My wife and I just got married last year, she has a house in Las Vegas worth about 140k which is 60k under water.

If she damaged YOUR property, SHE must pay for it.

Yes you can try to get another appraisal and see what happens.If they have lived there that long they have worn down the house some and if they left you would have re-conditioning costs before you could rent again.If it is possible and you can still make money I would sell now.Interest rates are at all time lows and the down payment is manageable.With the election coming we don't know the direction of where the housing industry is going.Lending money could get tighter and interest rates could rise even if values stay the same.If you tell the buyer they lose the option and to get out they will most likely do damage to the property.I would check too see if the buyers even have the ability to purchase right now.Have you seen evidence of the required down payment in a bank account and have you seen their credit report??

The sprinkler system is a complete separate water system tied to the water main.

They are not causing extreme damage, but more wear than I would expect for a typical family.Can I charge them for repainting the walls on moveout, professional carpet cleaning, tile grout stains from not cleaning after spills, etc, or would this be considered normal wear?

While the occupant will have reduced expenses like trash, water, etc, the landlod does not see the benefits.

The real estate investing industry, in my opinion, has been greatly damaged by these people.

Okay the 4 unit buildings when built in 1981 have one meter going in.There is no sub meters.Fulton county water stated that is what the builder requested in 1981.Fast forward to today.Fulton county does not do sub metering for these buildings.The water company stated these buildings only have a 3/4 line meter on one and 1 inch line meter on the others.Water bill has been high.We fixed a bunch of leaks and filed leak adjustments to Fulton county.Water company says they can test meter to make sure it reads right.Previous owner had high readings as well.Some tenants are only supposed to have 2 to 4 people living there on lease.End up having 8 to 10 people and they use the water constantly even with no leaks.Currently we provide water,sewer,trash into the total rent.We have to do it this way because with one line if the 3 tenants pay the bill but one does not the water company will cut off water to the whole building and lien it.Since it is one line into the building even if all leaks are fixed I can't go up to a tenant without proof they are using more water.I can tell tenant with an adjusted lease they are responsible for any usage after 50 bucks a month but they might not pay the difference.My plumber told me of a company that will install individual meters and then bill the tenants directly.Have any of you had experience with these companies?