However, just because that rate is already agreed upon there is ALWAYS an official work order that has the residents info, a description of their issue, a description of what my tech did, the parts used and a time they arrived and a time they finished.  

over the past few years, i have been raising the criteria and an interesting thing happened - i found less section 8 tenants qualifying without a noticeable decrease in qualifying applicants (obviously that could be due to many reasons)Anyways criteria like length of time in current job, length of time in current residence, avg bank balance and more are all criteria that help arrive at a well qualified applicantIf a section 8 applicant meets the criteria, they will likely be a good tenant and have the added benefit of being on section 8In other words, having good criteria avoids bad tenants regardless of their section 8 status

Code enforcement in this town is reasonable and did try to talk to the tenant about staying with relatives for a day or two, but a day or so later I found out it would be several more days waiting for a part to arrive.

Guys would call some number and they would answer, set up a "party" at a hotel somewhere, and coordinate a girl to arrive at the same time to meet the guy. 

So realistically my biggest concern is that they haven't seen the place in person yet.They are 5 days from arriving to look at it.

At the same time, if you could arrive in a manner that wouldn't be obvious so they wouldn't know you or the prospects are there might also work.With 20 showings an no takers, something is definitely wrong.

Yes, because you have to give a 24-hr notice, the offending tenants typically just clean up for your arrival.

If you pass over someone that makes an accusation, you will have your documentation to prove how you arrived at your choice.2.

I can definitely see why someone would want to secure their housing before they arrived in a new area.  

Tell them to rent a trailer and borrow a friends truck because your new tenants are arriving on the 1st. with them there or not.