You can perhaps partner with someone (via equity position) in the property purchase to mitigate risk and liabilities.

It is definitely less than ideal, but deployments are a fact of life in the military so if you don't figure out a way to mitigate them you will never get started.

@Adam Schneider - the other issue I have had in the past that I'm trying to mitigate is a situation where once in escrow and post-DD, the appraisals came in substantially below the purchase price (poor comps if you ask me!)

At the same time, in my opinion there are some things that mitigate them.1) Time requirements: while it does take time to vet the deals, purchasing a rental property and hiring a property manager are generally not truly passive/time-free experiences either.

I know apartments help mitigate some of the risk because it is cash flowing each month while the overall appreciation can go up and down so its a little bit safer to buy something than it might be a SFR.Any thoughts on this?

In 2010 if you bought a property in CA or DC which are my markets, I could do a Cash-out at year one and have another $40K in equity 12 months later following that cash-out, The risk was mitigated by the hot markets.

Tried to mitigate risk by using the AHS which did come in handy for potentially expensive AC repairs which I didn't need to pay for. 

It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it.

My dad owned a small commercial property for nearly 50 years without an LLC, though he looked into it in the 1980's and his lawyer told him to forget it.As to mitigating risks, the main one is insurance, good landlord insurance with umbrella, preferably $2 million or greater.

The concept you explained though makes perfect sense in applying funds received to utility payments and then rent to mitigate risk.