Also, the drug dealers next door had a pit bulldog that tried to eat through the fence and murder anyone that pulled into the driveway.

Whateves .. ill laugh all the way to the bank and use it to take my wife to the all you can eat shrimp at the red lobster .

They're "eating the steak", so they need to pay for it.If you heed my words, you will save yourself a lot of grief. 

You still got issues with maintenance of an older home eating in to your cash flow as in any older home (and cash flow might be your only benefit)look at the age of the 1) water heater2) AC3) appliancesGet an inspection to see regular rain penetrations, failing mechanical and plumbing, so many things , its worth the money.

Fortunately, this was one of properties i was able to pull off a BRRRR and was able to pull out more cash than i put in, but still, eating 3 months of expenses... this goes back to my argument about application fees.

1) Do a better job paying attention to heatlh - exercise, eating, enough down time, and paying more attention to personal relationships (family).2) Get a couple simple but boring project down at my day job business that I have been putting on the back burner 'because I can do them some day'.3) Get signed contracts on a couple deals I am working on : a group of a 4 plex and two duplexes that I am working on buying in my SOLO401K with a low down payment seller finances non-recourse loan!

Rental properties do generate cash, but they can also eat a hole in your wallet, especially when you have to replace a boiler or water heater or change locks or replace windows or fix a leaky bathroom.

I also consciously weed out the crap that tries to infect our minds on a daily basis.

As such, while the property prices are depressed and attractive (but the property tax are still high, eating ~30%+ of your annual rental income), so are the rentals - go checkout how many available rentals are currently active on the market in any area of SAN.

That class taught me enough that I can easily add a duplex financials onto my schedule E at the end of the year with the year end financial data my property manager would send me.