But if I was in your shoes, especially as a new investor yourself, I would stick to casual phone calls and see if you can resolve this with them personally. 

When we were doing demo, we found a toddler's  shoe in the attic, where the floor boards were not screwed in, in there were huge nails sticking out, scary and your heart just sinks that it's an accident waiting to happen!    

If I were in your shoes I would do the following things:1)Sell your car for 18K (or whatever it will sell for) and buy a much cheaper car.

I put myself in their shoes.  

What would an investor want to see in place already for them to want to stand in my shoes for this deal? 

Alexandra : Put your self in the sellers shoes .

@Patrick G. welcome to the site.I've worked with many investors in your same shoes.

I would avoid explaining it on a post card, completely.Put yourself in the recipients shoes.

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Replacing the carpets is an expectation for almost every unit we rent even when the carpets were brand new when the tenant moved in and even when the tenant was in the apartment for only one year.Personally, I hate carpets with a passion and when you consider the crap that carpets collect they should be against the law to rent an apartment with carpets more than one year old that contain who knows what when dogs clean their butts by dragging across carpets, animals urinate and poop on them, people spill, walk on them with poop on their shoes and who knows what kind of crazy sex people had on the carpets.Take a white bedsheet, put it on your floor where you walk into your home and look at what is on that bedsheet within just a couple hours.