I have been a landlord since 1982 and I have also flipped a fair numbers of homes over the years.A couple of years ago I discovered the "paper" side of the real estate investment world.

@Matt Speer , to be fair to your contractor, every contractor I've ever worked with turned a 3-month project into a 6+ month project.Good luck with the next flip.

Hi there, I'm fairly new to this market of the maritimes, and I wish I knew more about it.

Just be fair with what you withhold and look forward to a better experience with your next tenant.  

Because I was lucky enough to be in the market in the Great Recession I got good deals and they have appreciated fairly well. 

We've used the free version of rentometer & found it to be fairly accurate.  2- are there other sources that are more reliable?

I've also found that when I run a credit check many who have a fair number of accounts over 30 days in arrears (even if they haven't reached the collection stage) are to be avoided over a concern they've become too casual about living like this and thus adding another notice of a late fee (or even a threat of an eviction) doesn't seem to bother them very much.Gail

I don't think bashing this situation like you said is completely fair-- I was at the Y and someone was telling me about a property they just having sitting, nobody is marketing to this market, who knows how many people live out of state, etc with houses just sitting. 

I try and have around 25% of my offers accepted...Some of this is personal preference, but most will be fairly standard.  

Easier management especially when it comes to filling vacancies, and those middle of the road homes/areas tend to appreciate slow and steady fairly predictably.Again, doesn't mean you can't deviate from that if you see an interesting deal that you like (maybe one with a huge equity capture but less cash flow or vice versa).