A big unexpected $30k issue (I've had several) will take decades to recover from. 

That is a fair assumption, because I typically rehab my houses top to bottom when I buy them (cheap) and rent them out (fully rehabbed), and that's not unusual for my costs.Using that $20k figure, and the $700/month figure you put in your post, you find that even if you financed the full cost of the house, and figuring in vacancies, you would have recovered all of those costs in about 5 years.

But the concept of higher and higher prices has taken such as great hold that prices have recovered to pre-recession.

You will not make small claims anyway and if you do they will jack up your rates and recover much more than they ever paid out.2.

Document EVERYTHING.Will you recover the lost rent?

My monthly payment will drop by about $800 per month, which means in 4 months I will recover the cost of the new loan  My recommendation:  call a loan broker.

Because he believes it will take years for the Airline Industry to recover so meanwhile he'll put his money to work somewhere else.I would be looking at 6-months down the road to acquire additional rental properties at steeply discounted prices and taking properties "Subject To" etc.A freeing of mine at one of the Internet auction companies says due to the moratoriums on foreclosures the SFHs are piling up and will create a logjam down the line.

This is also why using the REI's cash to pay down the mortgage doesn't save anything...it just adds to the cost of the property...which must be recovered from the CF before any profit is made. 

Wage growth has not recovered from the financial crisis.

Paying attention to recent and upcoming capital investments by the city can also give you a good idea of where the money is flowing in the city and you can see if it is recovering or growing.