Within two months, my wife and I received vulgar text messages from our former neighbor complaining about the tenants and noise.While fixing some items at the unit, the other neighbors on the block noted how great our tenants were and how appalling our former neighbor's behavior had been.We received word yesterday that our tenants will not be renewing their lease and are seeking to break it early - noting that the neighbor is simply intolerable.

When wondering if a short-term vacation rental is a good investment for you,  first decide if any of these items meet your investment goals:  Is it your dream to own a property in a vacation destination?

I’ll be looking into each item you mentioned.

If you're self managing, I would charge myself the management fee so it's all clear and itemized for his auditing.

How to calculate these items in your market might be a little different than my market. 

They leave trash and personal items in the hallway and don't respond to notices to clean it up. 

whether an item can be expensed depends on if it is ordinary and necessary(and reasonable).It would be hard to argue that a random MBA is ordinary and necessary to your business.Maybe a class that is very specific to your business.

After our first tenant moved out I noticed that I couldn't find the scratch anymore.Floors are probably the highest wear item so personally, I would hesitate before buying a budget product, especially if it is not advertised as waterproof. 

I find it best to go talk with the planning / zoning department in the jurisdiction that your looking to build in and they are most always in my experience willing to help guide you in the right direction and provide you with a specific list of items that they require for a preliminary approval so you can have the confidence to know that you can build what you would like to on the property. 

HOA docs have their own specific date by which we need to review and can cancel the contract based on items found in those docs.