Think of all the things that could go wrong and see if the lease addresses them: unauthorized pets or tenants, early termination, security deposit, lease violations, late rent, eviction, lawn maintenance, parking, etc.5.

Being guided by rules of thumb can backfire.I've always considered being a landlord as buying a job, sometimes it's a great jo and sometimes not.If you never had the job before, you may miss some things like:A tenant has a guest over who trashes the place...Your tenant turns out to be a cook, a met cook.....Your units/house get red tagged, vacancy may be for months....Tenants die in there, little extra clean up and disclosing the death to new applicants might take longer to rent....Oh, city council just past another safety code for rentals, write a check....Your insurance is cancelled, you don't have a fire escape for the second floor....You find out you still need to evict a tenant who was just sent to prison....It's December 23, 8:00 pm, the furnace just broke down, call a motel....A greese fire just took out the kitchen ceiling.....Oh, the fire burned the electrical, the fire department just red tagged you....The next door neighbor's kid was bitten my your tenant's dog, do you still have the same agent....Notice of Legal Action, April 28th, are you off that day.....Tenant broke a faucet, the place is flooded from the top floor down....Another Order to Appear, a health code violation, the tenant's lawn mower is broken....How's that easy money going for ya?

The pool pics look artificial.

Think of all the things that could go wrong and see if the lease addresses them: unauthorized pets or tenants, early termination, security deposit, lease violations, late rent, eviction, lawn maintenance, parking, etc.5.

I used to change my own oil and mow my lawn, as well as iron my own dress shirts. 

Sometimes it can be according to market, sometimes according to tenants and sometimes according to personal taste (styling to market, broken stuff, re-paints, re-floors, etc)Maintenance is usually less variable (lawn care, cleaning, etc)Cap-ex can be a bit of a variable, though is actually more predictable.

No, gurus have always been everywhere now it has just been augmented by the Internet (Social Media) AND more sinisterly by artificial intelligence (AI), which now knows that you are interested in #RealEstate so it will continue to bombard you with Real Estate related content including guru marketing.

@Mikel KaubfaI had to include lawn services and water in my rental.

For mid-term rentals that are houses with yards and pet friendly, what do you typically do for lawn maintenance?

He ran down the stairs and across the lawn yelling "Ow!"