These folks are not really investors - they are motivated by paying less than it would cost for their child to reside in residence - and tend to overpay for the properties they acquire.To perpetuate the cycle, after their prodigy has finished university, these same parents expect to resell the house - to which they have affected no upgrades and little maintenance - for 5-10% more than the price they paid.  

Great question, but I just don't think there are any good answers other than it is a broken system, unfortunately.

I already use QB so the $200 to upgrade it now was a little annoying, but seems to be the best solution for us currently.  

I'll charge 1.5x rent for units with cats just to cover any additional damage, and we plan to move towards 1.5x rent deposit in the future as we upgrade units as well.  

I think you might just have to accept that you should have known this going in (60 year old broken windows are a "replace" item) and your budget is busted.I hope you're okay with advice that isn't rosy.

Handeling issues quickly, upgrades, competitive costs and honesty.Sorry I couldn't give you a recommendation on what you appear to be looking for but that is my system for handling such situations and it has been successful throughout the years as I havn't had to worry about it much because it doesn't come up much.

Put that in the lease as a reason for lease termination.Take out the washers or put them in a common area.I think you have to run the cost vs payback calculation on the submeters and upgrades vs. water savings.

Please help.....we are charging the tenant now $5000 in damages to the mobile home, jackuzzi(sp) and roof of mobile home. mobile home was pristene when he moved in on April 8th of this year.....broken window, broken front door and floor.

But maybe those are things that should be fixed anyway, just because you were ignorant of them does not make the "broken" things right ...

That was a year ago.After a couple months, one of her sons, and 5 of his pot smoking buddies are caught, having broken into my vacant house next door, getting high.