Hey I feel yer pain John.... My grandmother kept virtually every house they ever lived in for most of the time I was growing up. She had SEVEN rental properties at one time, and after I moved in to help her when I was 13 after my Granddad died, man did I get an education early. She sold a few off at a time-- one when I was a kid, and I finally talked her into DISPOSING of most of the other ones when I was in my late teens/early 20's. I think I'd throw a match on any of them before I'd rent them out again...
My "job" was running the farms, but I had to help her with the rental stuff, which I dearly HATED. I'd basically help her get them rented. The main ones I had to be concerned with was the "tourist courts" my Great-granddad had on 90A just east of Richmond, and the farmhouse on our other farm at Shiner. (the "tourist courts" were an ancient 'motor hotel' from the 30's that my grandparents ran for my great-granddad after WWII). The "courts" were rented out as little apartments back when I was a kid, and they got rather run-down and finally were sold and torn down. The 7 acre tract next door was rented to a pretty decent Mexican fellow who moved his trailer house onto the property by the water well. Later he asked if he could move in three more, and paid rent on them. Now, my Grandmother was from the "Depression mindset" and only charged like $125 a month for each trailer parked on the land. Felix paid it on time, and was no trouble, so that was cool... until after a few years and some cousins sold their part of the tract for a 'self storage' development. The new neighbors called griping about smells and stuff, raising sand. The cousins on the other side had rented their parcel to a stone/gravel/landscaping supply that had HUGE piles of wood chips, bark, and RICE HULLS on the back of the property, and knowing how sickeningly stinky rotting grain can be, I figured THAT was the source of the stink. The neighbors called the sewage inspector, but Felix ran him off and wouldn't let him on the property. Bad was going to worse so I went over and "investigated" myself. All we "provided" on the property was a water well... the tenants were responsible for their own electricity, gas, and sewer hookups, and supposedly had them. Turns out that when I squeezed between the trailers (arranged close together into a square) I found that they each had a 4 inch PVC pipe going to a center open "lagoon" sewer pit-- that was the source of the stench. I reported back to Grandma and told her that was the last straw and she better just sell that darn land before the gov't got involved and made her pay for a big cleanup, since obviously Felix wouldn't. The taxes had gone from a few hundred dollars a year to over FIVE THOUSAND due to development in the general area, and so basically she was PAYING THEM to live there, since the rent didn't even cover the taxes! She FINALLY saw it my way after I'd been trying to convince her of that for YEARS and she put it up for sale, and told Felix and his crew they'd have to move when it sold. Turns out Felix was collecting like $250 a month from his "subrenters" and paying Grandma $125. Go figure...
Back in the early 80's, folks were halfway decent. We had some good renters at Shiner... some stayed for YEARS. The farmhouse was a BIG old two bedroom, living, dining, big kitchen, laundry room, and one bath house, but it was built in the late 40's kinda 'on the cheap' to replace the old farmhouse that burned, back before my granddad bought the farm. We had a family there for YEARS that were GOOD renters, except for the junk pile of old beer bottles they started in a low spot on the front hill... but they paid regular and were basically good folks. Then they moved out, and a pair of brothers and a couple of their batchelor buddies moved in, which wasn't bad, for about five-ten years. They paid and were pretty decent, until they let a 'new buddy' move in to share the rent (all $150 a month!) who was a roughneck and travelled around a lot to oilfields, and turns out he was running dope up from the border at the same time... and got caught. They raided the farm and the boys got in trouble with him. Grandma came running into my room one Saturday morning waving the newspaper like a crazy woman sobbing and crying for me to read the story in the Shiner Gazette... the story said, "they arrested the landowner" and she was in a panic that the SWAT team was going to kick the door off the hinges at any moment. I told her it was probably just the stupid paper staff getting the story wrong, but she still wanted me to call Sheriff Wurm up in Hallettsville and make sure they weren't "coming to get her". The boys ended up moving out. We had a few short-term 'deadbeats' move through, usually leaving as much cost in repairs needed to the house before you could re-rent it as they'd paid in rent while they were there. Grandma was a 'softie' from going through the Depression and would let people get several months behind in the rent before she'd get after them about paying it, and so usually they just hung around free as long as they figured they could and then moved out right before you started the eviction paperwork. I refused to do renthouse repairs-- I'm a farmer not a slumlord I'd tell her, so she'd hire a young up-n-coming fix-it guy to go in and make repairs, then I'd help her re-rent it. When the boys moved out, though I DID haul off the pile of empty beer bottles they piled up behind the house-- AN ENTIRE LONG BED PICKUP LOAD OF THEM, piled up so high I couldn't have thrown another bottle on there without it rolling off the pile and dropping off the side of the truck! Loaded them with a corn scoop and gingerly drove to the county dump with them.
We had ONE decent renter-- a guy just graduated veterinary school and stayed in the house about a year, while working with the vet in town doing his internship or whatever. When he finished he was gone-- back to deadbeats... One guy moved in, and within a week proceeded to turn off the water trough to the cows... I turned it back on when I was up checking cows. Next week, off again, I turned it on again-- maybe whoever's screwing with it will take a hint... NAH! Next week, tanks empty again, so I go to the house and tell the guy IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that the water WILL remain on in the cow troughs-- we didn't spend $5000 bucks drilling the well and another $900 when it needed repairs for him to turn the water off to the cows in a drought when the ponds were going dry. He griped about his light bill, I called BS on that one-- the fix it guy stayed in the house a week running power saws, spray paint equipment, lights, and water, and the bill never exceeded the minimum. Besides, he's getting the house rent for $150-200 a month-- if you have to pay an extra 8 bucks on your light bill, SO WHAT! If the well goes out WE will have to pay to fix it, so tough luck buddy! Of course he didn't like it... but then his girlfriend from town would come out and wash laundry all weekend for her and her five kids, him, and his buddy that lived with him and split the rent, but NO THAT COULDN'T BE THE CAUSE OF THE HIGH LIGHT BILLS... jerk finally moved after several months...
Another guy was ok awhile and then gave sob stories about how his child support was too high and he couldn't pay the rent (like he shouldn't have to pay the rent) I was like "tough cookies-- if your child support is too high now since you changed jobs, you better talk to the judge and get it reduced-- because you'll have a harder time paying it living under a bridge-- we're not providing government housing here... the rent's cheap enough- pay it or move." After getting about six months behind he finally moved.
TO BE CONT'D...
YMMV... 
