But then, one of the tenants is concerned that the $1,000 extra change for the water bill from early March would lead me to deduct that from their lease (which I assured them that I would not).

I tried letting pets come and have pee stains on the rugs, so I stopped allowing themI have replaced the floors in 3 of my Short Term Rental homes to waterproof vinyl planking, so I am now considering allowing them again.Please help me decide Pets or No Pets- Tell me some of your findings with pets.How much extra do you charge per pet?

That is usually an extra service you need to request from home inspectors, but a good idea on a property this old. 

That being said, is it really worth charging an extra month of rent if you know you'll have to come after them for it in court?

But another part of me realizes how nice it would be to have 35k extra dollars to play with.

Once you have a nice bit of extra coming through your business, then use the business to buy your house on the water or whatever floats your boat.Call up @Sonya Mays and have her show you some things that tick off MOST of the boxes on your list.

Worth the extra money in my opinion and just need 4 batteries every year or two. 

An extra large work from home area. 

Since house hacking requires lower down payments you could be left with some extra cash to be ready for the next crash.

Mortgage money is essentially free right now so an extra $25,000 on the purchase price because there is a brand spanking new six burner Wolf range in the kitchen can seem reasonable.