NEVER have a verbal leasing agreement.

This is often done through a sandwich lease.

Property Condition & Amenities: it’s important to, “Maintain to the Neighborhood.”Key metrics for each Property Class:Class A Properties:Tenant Pool: Majority of FICO scores 680+, no convictions/evictions in last 7 years.Tenant Default: 0-5% probability of eviction or early lease termination.Section 8: Class A rents are too high and won’t be approved.Vacancies: 5-10%, depending on market conditions.Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 3-5 years for positive cashflow, but you get highest relative rent & value appreciation.Class B Properties:Tenant Pool: Majority of FICO scores 620-680, some blemishes, no convictions/evictions in last 5 years.Tenant Default: 5-10% probability of eviction or early lease termination.Vacancies: 10-15%, depending on market conditions.Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 1-3 years for positive cashflow, balanced amounts of relative rent & value appreciation.Section 8: Class B rents are usually too high for the Section 8 program.Class C Properties:Tenant Pool: Majority of FICO scores 560-620, many blemishes, but should have no convictions/evictions in last 3 years.

It's written into the lease that tenants must deposit their rents into that particular account (either by online bank transfer or by walking in a check/cash); I do not collect rents directly, nor would I if anyone asked.

A room rents for about $800-$900/month so you would need to run a lodging house with a minimum of 6 bedrooms and put at least 40% down (~$350k) just to breakeven with a prime -0.50 mortgage.Personally I would rather put that money into a money market fund and earn 3-4% without the nonsense of being a landlord, especially with the tenant-friendly laws in Ontario.It's worse now but it was already not worth being a landlord for most of my investing career (I started in 2000) which is why I got into lease options and seller financing. 

Higher, higher, lower, higher, higher, that's it, you win the lease renewal!!!!

The primary purpose of this purchase is to be a summer vacation home for us to spend summers with our kids there and then short term lease it throughout the year.

A clean single-family in Victorville or Apple Valley will lease quickly, and typical rents run between $1,800 and $2,400 depending on size and location.

We hired a property manager and leased our home for the two years we were in DC.

Some cool benefits include expense tracking (per property), the Lease Indiciation Tool (helps predict the likelihood of a tenant renewing the lease giving you the chance to renew early and/or increase monthly rent if you know someone wants to renew), Tenant Communication (via their app), Maintenance Requests, Tenant Payments, and more.