Oh, and there was a LOT of them, most of which will never recover. 

Other times of the year - if you find out your tenant is recovering from a surgery, have a flower delivery service drop off a $30 "get well" flowers - just did that one this week.

Even further, they offload that risk by selling the future promise to someone else, or recover that non-existent money from someone else if the note isn't paid (Freddie, Fannie, Ginnie).

Once you recover your "cost to control", you are making a profit from that point forward (as long as you keep the positive CF), and now it cost you nothing to control it.Who pays the rest of the sale price? 

It is nice having some credit that doesn't show up on my personal credit report, and I'm hoping that moving some of my credit card debt onto those cards will help my score recover.

Paying for my mistake now and it will take me years to recover from it.  

Here's a nice one he mentioned: To recover attorney's fees in an eviction suit, a landlord must give a tenant who is unlawfully retaining possession of the landlord's premises a written demand to vacate the premises.

So we have purchased at highs (1992 and 2003: both depreciated nearly 20% after purchase before recovering and appreciating far past purchase price) and lows (1998 (by far our best purchase: over $100K/year in rent), 2012 (distant 2nd best purchase), 2013, 2014) but because we hold long term every purchase has been profitable. 

Currently, my biggest fear is, because of the position in which I am starting, failing and not being able to recover.

This $1200 a year I recover by my lower turn over rates (carpet, paint, advertising etc).