Maybe get a handyman to throw tar on to Band-Aid the leaks. 

I think getting started earlier rather than later is always smart because it's like pulling off the band-aid.

But at some point, tenants won't take a band aid fix or an "HVAC guy says there's nothing wrong with it" for an answer, especially if it keeps happening.My question to you, do you have a string of texts/ emails or any communication with the tenant showing you were actively working the problem?

I do recommend very strongly before you go buying the same list everyone else is buying and worry too much about dialers and the such that you take the very first right of passage that I believe every investor should take.DRIVING FOR DOLLARS.This is also probably one of the lowest cost of entry while also being one of the surest paths to success.Simply start going through the B and C areas of your town and start looking for signs of distress and abandonment.Look for the tall grass, homes that you can see right through at the windows, homes with no curtains and no furniture inside, damaged mailboxes, mailboxes with no doors, missing mailboxes, cars with expired tags which have obviously not been moved in quite awhile, etc…Once you have found 20-50 addresses, look them up on the county’s property appraiser.Here is a link to a site that will pull up the property appraiser, clerk of courts and tax collector for every county in the country. 

The Meet-up is Monday at 7:00PM on June 19th at Steel City Pizza patio.  8600 Dorchester Rd at Club Course Drive, two lights North of Ashley Phosphate.

The idea being you have as part of your system what amounts to your own personal "ATM", that produces a continuous stream of profits...cash, to use as the "B" and the first "R".  

In the end, I think the same way I will transition my traditional retirement vehicle from higher risk stocks to lower risk bonds as we near retirement age, I imagine I'll trade up to lower cash flowing B and A class properties the older we get.

Thank you @Brandon Turner  , @Lisa B. and @Ken Martin for the reply.

Lets call them A, B, and C tenants. 

Brass lasts roughly 40-70+ years, steel: 20-50, copper: 50+.