The outgoing landlord has no filtration in the either of the two units that I can tell. 

If you have a good PM company and buy properties with enough cash flow spread between monthly out go and monthly in flow you will not be spending 20 hours a week as someone mentioned per unit.I do about 3-10 emails a month and make about 1-2 calls sometimes none if all is on track.

The simple courtesy of reaching out goes a long way.2) There exist many municipal, regional, and state rental assistance programs.

If I am new to REI and I am after Cash Flow, I am going to eliminate out going flow as much as possible, especially if I am in a NEGATIVE cash flow situation.  

I'd look more towards cutting costs and increasing cash flow in traditional manners and balancing the income/outgo. 

Once your license is with a brokerage, you can send outgoing referrals to anywhere in the world at a (usually) 25% fee just for making the connection! 

@Rich Ng  don't see that happening... you would be pretty surprised when you dig into folks backgrounds and that someone who you think is a wiz bang on BP may not be who they even say they are... this guy ran on an Alias and once I figure out his true name I then found the red flags that would have precluded me from doing any business with him in the first place.If I still had my Accurant account I would have run him through the mortgage fraud module and it would have picked him out ... going forward if I bring on someone new its full criminal and credit background checks no exceptions.

I am not sure how Austin is but in the Tampa area (depending which jurisdiction) this is likely the better part of a year if you most FAST and EVERYTHING goes according to plan.However, once through it you would have a more valuable asset with more equity and more cashflow.As mentioned above I would just re-run your numbers 10 more times and if it checks out go for it.

Once the old tenants are out, go in and make it rental again and reset with the new PM. 2.

Pretty much anyone can replace an outgoing tenant.