About 3.5 years ago I left the startup and moved to NYC to launch my consulting business (focused on digital marketing for startups/nonprofits), which I still work on full-time.Now at age 30 I'm finally in a place where my short-term survival is no longer consuming 100% of my attention, and I have the mental space and cashflow to turn my eye towards long-term wealth building.

Awaken the Giant Within : How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny by Anthony Robbins15. 

It was a tough decision mentally  because they are often thought of as 'ambulance chasers', but the good ones really know what they are doing and mine has even been an emotional crutch so far! 

While a successful RE investment pays for itself (either by tenants paying down your mortgage or by selling for a premium) taking on thousands of dollars of debt can be one of the biggest mental hurdles for new investors.

Not paying rent due to personal life situations is one thing but a tenant withholding rent is completely unacceptable.That mentality in a tenant is something landlords should never tolerate.Evictions filed without judgements means they are problem tenants.

Rationale is why bother to talk yourself into accepting them (scarcity mentality) instead of finding another "cleaner" tenant (abundance mentality).  

You can have the "I'll grind it out/sacrifice now, so I can live great when I'm 60" mentality only for so long.

A cat or a chihuaha is OK.....A Rotweiller or Pit Bull or Snake is NOT OK.Always ask how many people will potentially live at the unit....You don't want the mother, and grandma, and 4 kids living in the 3 bedroom 1 bath unit.....whatever number they say...always mentally add one more person to that.Regarding Deposits and Application Fees.........If (before they even fill out the application for the background check) they say I don't want to pay $45.00 for a deposit fee if I'm not going to get approved .....that's a red flag.     

Originally posted by @Kurt Gardner:@Nick StoddardKeep it as simple as possible.OP specified he isn't renting C-D class properties, A & B properties garner their higher rents because of amenities, keeping it simple means you're posting on here all the time wondering why you can't rent it, these properties attract better quality tenants who take care of the properties better also you can and must put in some features to warrant the higher rents.Nick keep the ^^^^ in mind, you dumb down your rentals due to listening to people giving advice from perspectives of properties different than yours and you'll end up shooting yourself in the foot when you have trouble renting it due to your competitors properties offering more the money.Many landlords are cash flow investors, not equity investors, their properties are lower quality, lower quality tenants, lower expectations, lower rents, they step over dollar bills to pick up pennies, having a penny pinching mentality, don't fall into that trap.

Mold is a recent fad, causing insurance people to freak out and the victim mentality to proliferate.I had some bad tenants with a mold issue years ago.