In my opinion here, your agent should have let you know this could come up or at least given you a long leadtime to this cancellation coming so if that relationship isn't super tight I may recommend looking for another agent who might be better at preventing things like this.

Wow, super eye opening!

That’s super helpful. 

If you could find work in this environment, maybe a builder....where you will meet all the trades...or a city code inspector....so same thing you meet all the trades.Otherwise maybe working in a supply store where you also could meet all the trades.Another alternative is a project manager for commercial construction...that's still moving strong here.Lending I would think would be super tough right now. 

That said, I recently became super intrigued with the idea of purchasing our first home in St Louis and then using it for mid-term rentals (specifically for travel nurses) during the ~6ish months that we're out of state. 

I'm super excited about this.

I must say it is super helpful and inspiring to hear about your success, especially for a Newbie like myself.

You already asked for a higher deposit, so if everything else meets your criteria for renting to her, why not add an addendum to the lease that states while this is a 1 year lease, within the first 3 months, you can terminate it early...a way for you get out, not the tenant.Depending on how bad the black mold was, you may want to make sure everything is super clean before she moves it in.Her previous landlord is right in a way 'that her lease stated that no matter what the rent is due', but if the house is not habitable, that rent gets put into a special account that the landlord can't access until the problem is remedied.

These also have an adjustable clamp on the overflow tube to reduce excess water running down to the bowl, so more water fills the tank.  

She takes the money we make on flips and pays down her mortgages, so 10 years to buy all the properties and anther 3-5 years to pay them all off. 15 years worth of work to have a 10k/month income for the rest of her life. ( i know all these numbers are right because not only is she my partner but also my mom ) The house she targeted were not lower income inner city house but instead a suburb of columbus in a decent area where most people make 50k/year house hold income. we are also super picky on who we put in the rentals to help turn over rates and keep the houses in the best shape possible. the key to this is great credit and enough cash to buy one house in cash and just keep rolling the cash into anther house with cash out refis.