I would actually think almost none sticks to the walls and cieling but it might be a difference in the quantity being consumed tobacco vs weed.

I personally opt for cash first since my goals are to build cashflow now (not leave it locked up until I retire). 

The pros to a year lease is that you won't have to search for and vet new tenants on a somewhat regular basis, and deal with the vacancies, were you to opt for a month-to-month option.

But as your portfolio grows, managing your units can then get quite time consuming and can start to feel like a headache.

It's extremely time consuming and I'm wondering if there are better tools to help automate the process?

You ensure they know by driving the point home.Yes, that process is time consuming, but would you rather vet 10 applications, denying 9 of them because those 9 people didn't bother reading anything other than the rental price?

We bring in about 12k/month after taxes and will have all of our consumer debt paid off in July.

"Deals" may start to pop up here and there as consumer confidence rides the recovery wave, but the timing just isn't right (in my opinion). 

One deal like that one could consume you and leave you with a whole lot of nothing. 

I would also strongly recommend consuming as much of the BP podcast as you can.