You are looking at wiping down all surfaces, including walls and ceilings, with chemicals, running an air purifier or ionizer, replacing all carpeting, and that still may not take care of it.Hopefully their security deposit was a big one and you can get them out of there soon.

The $3,000 retainer contract was in the mail the next day!

Paying yourself a wage is not really a way to go in most small businesses as a lender still looks at the business' ability to pay that wage and retain enough for operations.

Ya I'm not sure if the lawyer has a retainer fee or would work on percentage. 

Everything must be kept at arm's length and you may not benefit in any personal way until such time as you start taking distributions from the IRA or 401k in retirement.If you utilize your Solo 401k in a manner where you think of yourself as a fund manager deploying the capital to it's highest and best use, and not as "joe landlord" using the retirement capital to fund "your" real estate deals, then you will be just fine.Such a plan provides the opportunity to put that retirement capital to work in real estate, invest in what you know, and hopefully achieve better results with that retirement savings than if you left if in the good hands of the folks on Wall Street.Take the time to research and learn about the process of using a self directed IRA or 401k.  

I solved that problem , then a damn pipe burst on an exterior wall of my house , fixed that , now I have about 20 hours of snow plowing to do .  

Has anyone ever dealt with tar sealant (waterproofing, exterior grade) used on the INSIDE walls of the basement?

Your personal financial position will play on the right choice, are you retiring in 18 years or 8 years, and too much equity can be difficult and expensive to take out of the walls later on.I don't hold very long, at about 7 to 10 years the depreciation falls with less of an advantage, that means it goes up for sale.

I would decrease the rent just to retain them.  

AC is window units built in to the wall (probably my least favorite part about the units).