Often this stuff can be easily eradicated with a combination of bleach and water or (better yet) hydrogen peroxide mixed with some water.And, as Adrienne has mentioned, the stuff in the kitchen can be caused by cooking methods of tenants. 

If you are comfortable with leverage, cash-on-cash returns easily start at 20% and go up from there.Appreciation will be little to none, or basically keep up with inflation.

I'm told 2 of the 3 units already have screened and approved tenants available, so we're close.I had an independent inspection, and Elite agreed to all of the proposed repairs - most were pretty minor and easily accomplished. 

You can easily run afoul of ERISA laws and risk being fined or worse.

There is easily about 25 STR's in my neighborhood alone.

I could easily get $650/month for these units as is, and could almost certainly get $750/month if I put in some new carpet and painted.

So while you can easily prove responsibility, it is a much harder thing to prove guilt of the crime.

Biggest takeaway-Make sure to use sound barrier caulk between the ceiling and wall, NOT drywall mud so that the sound vibrations do not travel easily to the wall thus transfering the sound and you hearing it there instead.

From my perspective, I would appreciate if more landlords would choose a method that is easily documented and re-producible and stick with it.

Second, the benefits of investing in landscaping for your rental is not necessarily 'quantifiable,' in the sense that you often can't easily correlate the work done to an increased dollar-amount for market rent.Where it can benefit you, though, is from a market-time standpoint.