If we assume two weeks each of vacancy for those two turnovers, that comes out to $1000 per year in vacancy adjustment.  

Helped you fill vacancies even in low turnover seasons? 

@Robert Prieto - So you would really be willing to carry 90% of the rent and all utilities to satisfy your lease with the owner between vacancies?

Total monthly rent: $9600Total monthly costs: $3097.67   (taxes + insurance + utilities + management + 3% vacancy)Total net: $6502Total net @ 5% vacancy + 5% maintenance: $5830.Estimated mortgage payment (100% financed @ 5.5% interest): $4798Total take home:  $1704 w/o maintenance, $1032 with 5% maintenance.  

At $100K in debt service, I can't afford 3 years vacancy.....

Those factory workers you need to collect rents weekly as the tenants tend to blow the checks fast on booze,women, other things etc.When the downturn happened apartment vacancies went from 95% occupancy to 75% and landlords fought with reduced rents to keep tenants.

Make sure that you understand the vacancy rate for the area that you're planning on doing rentals in.Also make use of the calculators even though a deal looks like a deal to the naked eye you have to look into your Full expense as a newbie.  

I think landlords are very afraid of vacancy, but a bad tenant costs more than leaving the property vacant for months.

For "buy and hold" investors, the markets support rental properties, with high demand, and very low vacancy rates.Texas and Oklahoma also have many other smaller markets in both states where you can do very well investing based on oil & gas prices and pick up properties very cheap that will rent for more than 2%.

The problem is, the only housing/rental markets I've ever known are Denver and Northern Colorado: Prices are high and increasing, rents are relatively high, and vacancy rates are low.