And your descriptions of how you handle things are helping me firm up my procedures, systems, routines.

This is not true for low credit score applicants, so you need to have a plan in place that provides incentives for you to get paid -- for us, this means having a robust late payment policy that tenants understand and that provides incentives for early communication, routine payments and limits on possible losses.  

In the beginning, while I was working 50-60 hour weeks, living way below our means, not buying the latest this or that, driving cars till the wheels fell off, not going on fancy vacations my friends and family were doing all of this and more while almost laughing at me that I wasn't.

I manage a lower end 12 plex in an inner-city environment that's old, it's not fancy but we have a nice community of residents that are happy when things are fixed timely and properly.

So these guys won't be buying houses or other fancy assets.

Keep your costs down - don't let renters or new contractors see you all dressed up and driving a fancy new car. 

The guy in the fancy leased car? 

(This is not legal advice, it was all made up as a flight of fancy on a slow friday afternoon) But hey, That's how I handle these.  

I included in my contract that tenants must be responsible for routine yard work and say how this falls under that category. 

Unless, you have that built in overall in the analysis.Personally, I would not consider switching to city sewer unless the entire septic system needs to be replaced and sewer is close.Septic is fine when system is designed correctly and routine maintenance is conducted.Hope that helps.