I'm new to this and not trying to impress anyone, I'm just being myself and, in the meantime, become smarter.As Benjamin Franklin said "We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."

Your approach of 1/useful life of each item is the best practice as long as there's a little inflation built into the replacement costs and some padding for unknowns.One of our standard due diligence items is an engineering inspection that includes estimates of the useful life remaining on building components.

If he brought me to court could I then be responsible for paying the remaining amount due on the lease?

Im long everything now and will remain that way for now.

But why did so many just blindly accept such wild appreciation, while other markets remained more stable.

At least here in CO, a landlord could not get away will sending you a bill for the remaining term of the lease.

Attracting new renters to fill the remainning spaces has been a challenge so I'm curious what successful ways people have found to bring in new rental clients?

However, remember that thought must be given to the amount of remaining fees (closer related) and repair (and related) cost before determining that the deal is valid or not.I hope this helps. 

The property address on the conditional loan approval remains as TBD or to be determined till the borrower finds a property to contract with.The advantage being that an underwritter has reviewed and stamped the file for approval with "conditions," along with the loan officer.

You always have the option of paying more monthly to pay down the loan if you desire but at least your interest rate will remain fixed unlike an ARM which will eventually change.