If your leasing application process is thorough and well thought out, and if your lease agreement has been well drafted by your local attorney and if it includes clauses that permit you/your property manager enough latitude to maneuver and anticipate undesirable tenant behaviors, both actions and inactions, and you have operational processes which align with enforcement of your lease, then you've done all you can do to reduce this inherent risk of an undesirable tenant.  

Add to that the fact that private financing typically involves way less bureaucracy, with reduced paperwork and fewer hoops to jump through.

Lastly, having a reserve fund is key to offsetting unexpected costs, especially with reduced cash flow from the loan repayments.Hope this helps, and congrats on tackling creative financing!

Just reduce there rent by $5 and they will be happy to do it.

Most sellers will laugh when you ask them to reduce the price by 3% because you're not using a buyer's agent.....You can buy and sell your own  properties without a license anyway...  

Do you think certain methods help reduce late payments?

After purchase the assessment office was given the survey and quickly reduced the acreage for taxation to 1.8 acres also. 

Would love to be able to reduce the fee down to 10% or so, would really help with the numbers (although I think it would still not cash flow).

there are of course more creative strategies to reduce that up front outlay, or recoup your capital, like, say, the BRRRR method. but they are time and energy intensive and certainly not hands-off. 

Like anything it has to stay balanced but small gestures go a long way in reducing turnover and mitigating many "would be" issues.