My advice: don’t overthink it—your first house hack is about learning, so pick a strong rental market, ensure solid demand, and lock in a deal that gets you close to break-even or better.

Lock-out, should they continue to not come even, would be typically less than 14-days.Unless the tenant comes even with the rent (which would result in dismissal of the non-payment of the case), there is generally limited defense to this process.

If the unit is empty, change the locks, clean it, and get it rented.

Install low flow water heads, swap the washer/dryer with High Efficiency models, replace the water heater with a tankless version and lock the temperature at a reasonable level, install smart thermostats that will automatically reduce the heat/cool when it senses no one is home, swap all the lights for LEDs, etc. 

I actually got caught up in the creative finance bubble of trying to lock up properties way over their value just because it had creative terms not realizing that if you were to buy a property at 120% of its value you will never be able to refi or sell without paying out of pocket.

and that cash is locked up.what does that get you? 

Lisa Sturtevant, a Chief Economist at MLS, had a great post on LinkedIn about this that broke down the current listing data: Linkedin Post LinkWe have been in a sellers market overall the last few years due to the "lock in effect" causing historically low inventory.

We don't specifically ask for them to "close" but we do ask for them to lock the door behind them. 

Pack their items, change front door locks and give new locks to other tenants.

Have lock, can do.