I maintain a small paper file on each tenant with my state required forms in the event I ever have to take a tenant to court.

Houses in the area have maintained or increased in price.

Your Residential Lease Agreement should outline all the appliances that are in the unit (make, model, serial number; that the described appliances belong to the Landlord; and are Tenants' responsibility to maintain/repair.Further, your Residential Lease Agreement should have a paragraph that states "Tenant shall be responsible for the first $125.00 of incidental repairs."

Seller doesn't appear to be cash-poor and is happy to have someone maintaining the home instead of tearing it down for the lot.  

I prefer the shorter term rentals because my property is better maintained. 

Respond to maintenance requests quickly.Maintain the property well.Treat residents with respect.Properly screen tenants in the same complex to create a community of like-minded residents.Respectfully enforce lease terms regarding on time rent so their is clarity and consistency among residents.Respond to items that impact the overall look of the exterior of the property (broken blinds, sheets or signs in windows, storage on front porches).Properly maintain landscaping in communities.Provide automation for applications, lease signing, renters insurance and lease payments.Deal aggressively with unlawful and non compliant residents to provide a safe community.Understand and price rents at market levels.If you are raising rents, offer to clean carpet (if needed) or add/replace a fixture...get creative to add value.  

And many houses have pools - which get pricey to maintain too.  

Actually made an offer on a 10 spacer last week that was all city utilities, long term tenants, direct bill everything to tenant, butted up to city maintained streets and roads.

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/bcsc/forms/corp/stat/act23.pdf Sec. 207. (1) Each domestic limited liability company and foreign limited liability company authorized to transact business in this state shall have and continuously maintain in this state both of the following: (a) A registered office that may, but need not be, the same as its place of business.

We purchased small equipment (edger, etc) for us (landlords/owners) to use to maintain lawns at all of our rental properties.