The only downside is he smokes cigs but assured me he wouldn't smoke in the house.

In reality I would treat it as if you were to treat cigarette smoke residue.  

In addition, you'll likely need to add hard wired / communicating smoke alarms once you redo a certain percentage of the electrical.

Smoke/CO detectors too.

Note that being in Colorado, none of our rentals have A/C :)January: Change furnace filters (we do it- we have learned that tenants will not, it is just easier to do it ourselves)Test Smoke detectorsSpring:Yearly sewer rooting serviceSummer:Check on landscaping if anything needs us to attend toTest Smoke detectorsOctober:Change filters in furnaceHVAC cleanout

Originally posted by Tim Silvers: Please clarify this.

Just briefly, I get a good handle on whether they smoke or not first, how many animals, then if they have good employment.

Especially with referrals, I ask the person referring- How much do they smoke?

In what spare time I have,  I've found a way to sift through lots and lots of data and smoke out rentals and vacants.  

Your post reads like a tobacco ad telling me if I start to smoke I'll become one of the cool kids.