Austin TX Rental property struggling with finding a tenant!

[Ali Masoudi]

I have a 3bds/2ba SFR rental property in north east Austin (great location, 20 minutes to downtown); 2 months ago before my tenant moved out we listed the house for rent (kept the rent flat, $2,300/month) , but so far I've had only one applicant and they also went for another property eventually! My previous tenant moved out at the end of Aug and now it's ready for move-in, I also replaced carpets with Vinyl, Pics of the property are taken professionally and also a 3D video is posted. What I see from Zillow is that there are so many homes for rent in the area and the rents are almost in the same range, and apparently there are not many people moving around ... am thinking to reduce the rent to compete, (although I don't really like doing this), but I might have to or my agent was telling me I can offer 1-month free rent for an immediate move-in (I already have paid for the mortgage in Sept!) I'm looking for your thoughts or recommendations on what my strategy should be? How long vacancy in a market like AUSTIN is acceptable? when you guys have vacancy for more than 12 months, what do you do to pay for the mortgage? I'm wondering if other landlords have similar challenge in Austin or other markets? I really appreciate your inputs!