I screened two potential tenants today.

It's listed for $20K under TV, which falls into this "no man's land" price range in our area (too high for first time buyers, too low for those moving up).

Do the gutter screens work well enough to justify the expense, at least under the trees?

Do you find the service helpful in screening applicants credit history?

Setting up utilities, especially TV and internet, is a pain, and sometimes the tech support won't help your tenants when they call, even if you put their names on the account.For me, renting by rooms is an acceptable last resort when I can't fill my units with groups.

Screen your tenants really well.

If you were to have couple of vacancies for 2-3 months, can you sustain them without lowering your tenant screening standards and dipping into your savings?

Now that we have a property manager, we've had more issues as they don't seem to screen the dogs as well, which makes no sense as you can usually tell within minutes if a dog is well-trained and obeys your basic commands or jumps on you or acts aggressively.  

Have you watched the tv show about Tiny Houses? 

Smaller ones will often just give it out over the phone, especially if you ask "I need to verify info provided by an applicant" rather than if you ask "Can you tell me how much so-and-so makes".You might want to check out this thread:  Ultimate tenant screening guide.