Her lease states that after the first 30 days, she was responsible for dealing with pests (although I think that MO law requires the landlord to keep the building "habitable" http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natur... ). 

Absolutely no harm in asking.

Yes I think learning the disciplines and habits of gaining wealth will take some time.

Realtors have a bad habit of closing out the listing as expired after 90 days in the MLS and then opening up a whole new listing for it.

If someone puts in a mistaken record and a person is harmed how do things get correct?

The smell is probably not going to ever go away from whatever they are cooking, and the last landlord allowed them to move in probably not knowing or caring anything about their cultural cooking habits.

I wasn't under the impression that government officials generally make a habit of confirming or denying assertions made in random forum posts made on the Internet?

At some point your bad habits catch up with you.

Sounds like you have control of your spending habits, but for those that don't like Steve said it can really put ones home at risk.

Robert, this was an REO deal....as for the marketing....bandit signs for locating the buyer...I'm getting in the habit of putting up 20 bandits signs twice a month (over the weekend - I'd pick them late Sunday night/early Monday morning).