If the ex-tenant does take you to court and you bring that mentality with you, you should hope and pray the judge wasn't raised by or is a single mom.

I completely understand why they act the way they do, it's out of fear or the scarce mentality.

There is going to be some BS to deal with so people need to be mentally and financially prepared to deal with it.

If you need to make significant repairs or updates (or clear out some of the hoarded material), but she's mentally not ready for that, you could find yourself in a tough spot. 

Also, exhaustion will bury a lot of the enterprising novices.

A cat or a chihuaha is OK.....A Rotweiller or Pit Bull or Snake is NOT OK.Always ask how many people will potentially live at the unit....You don't want the mother, and grandma, and 4 kids living in the 3 bedroom 1 bath unit.....whatever number they say...always mentally add one more person to that.Regarding Deposits and Application Fees.........If (before they even fill out the application for the background check) they say I don't want to pay $45.00 for a deposit fee if I'm not going to get approved .....that's a red flag.

I'll need systems and a team, along with a strong support network of positive people with proactive can-do mentalities

You'll also be shocked at the "Entitlement Mentality".As already mentioned, screen them just like other tenants.

Let's look at the list of suggestions just in this thread on how to prevent such a situation from occurring:googleing the person's namehaving tenant sign a form stating the apartment is in habitable conditions before/upon moving intaking pictures/video of the premises before the tenant moves innot purchasing a property that has an existing tenantdoing credit checks on tenants who are in a property to be purchasedetc...Can you imagine the expense that everyone is now having to go through, in time (which is monetizable, and could be spent on other things, including real estate business), setting up a system to store such pictures, mental aggravation, increased work to screen tenants, and so on, for the sake of the <1% of tenants who cause these issues?

@Seamus Harper Would call non-emergency dispatch for local PD and ask them to send an officer with training with mental health situations.