They didn't pay and left the place a mess, with plenty of belongings like beds, clothes, bikes, etc. 

He said it’s more of an incentive to get his tenants to pay on time.

Paying down your mortgage is 100% risk free. 

It may sound nice to pay a 6% management fee but the extra fees can add up to be more than the other company that charges 10% with no additional fees.

In the future you never offer to pay anything without receipts.

If we put a tenant in the house we will have to pay the state back their $8,000 of assistance.Loan Balance: $150KCapital Required to Rent: $10K ($8K to pay out the state and $2K that I put into professional cleaning and new carpets.) 

When using hard money, your rate is usually higher and you also have to pay some sort of lender fees and points. 

The tenant pays me $175 on the side so I'm still cash flowing a few hundred overall.

While you pay for their utilities and repairs.

So, they have barely an inkling of how to work with an investor to find "deals".Of course, most of the newbie investors don't know what a "deal" is either, with many of them willing to pay asking, or above asking prices.