The results are bothering me, but it could be because I have a clean criminal record and I guess I expect others to be clean as well. 

I’ll buy as is where is clean title.  

Here's a good start: NY Tenant RightsYou should know the law and review it regularly to keep up with changes, particularly in a liberal state like NY that is regularly changing.

Now that they live in it, they have regular renters begging them to go on vacation for a week so they can come stay in it. 

I had to make some concessions to tenants on rent to keep them calm while they were forced to go to laundry facilities to clean their clothes.

It's an awesome group of people - @Florence Lee is a regular there.

You definitely want to charge enough for deposits and such to help cover cleaning and light damage repair but at the same time if you charge too much people will just bring their pets in and never tell you about it.

My main one is having someone come clean my house. 

I'm listing an older gulf access home in SE Cape Coral and it's booked solid with seasonal renters and its pretty dated, clean but older (actually my age, 49 :).

The $50/pet I charged initially was a one time fee to pay for carpet cleaning after they vacate.