Smiling and dialing, burning that power hour, bothering calling home owners during their dinner, a coked-out caffeinated boss breathing down your neck.

Since they offered the $300 and rents to date, more than you may well be entitled to, I'd suggest you take that and smile.  

I remember a seller all cocky and smiling telling what a great deal I was getting.

Are you going to rationalize a bad property into a good one...just so you can smile and say, "I got my 90 day goal"?

Creativity and problem solving has always excited me especially helping others seeing grace and smiles warms my heart.

And for the builder $268 was likely fairly reasonable as they’ll still have a healthy profit on the way out.

If you have to liquidate your stocks to maintain your rental, there is a very high opportunity cost of losing the compounding of your returns over the life of your investment.This is where @Paul Vail keeps reiterating the point of being conservative with a healthy cash cushion.

And don’t get me started off the young healthy lazy ones on sec 8.

Note that I'd be shipping the AC filters directly to their door.I'm trying to have a healthy balance of not bothering the tenant although its to keep the home operating effectively vs. keeping an eye on my property. 

I was pot committed and made it happen and can look back and smile now.