No prior evictions, no felonies.

While you can have a checklist of income, credit score, criminal background, landlord reference, etc, to me the bigger tell of good versus less than good tenants came from all the interactions prior to leasing.  

Sounds like you've navigated the environment by having an overall lower risk exposure prior the market adjustment.

Then there were some issues with the inspection report that ruined 3 contracts prior to me getting involved.

While outsourcing overseas may be tempting, I would recommend nailing down your processes prior to teaching someone, or you'll wind up with their processes, at best. 

Having watched many prior co-workers get paid, cash their check at the casino, and promptly deposit it all into a slot machine I can tell you with pretty good certainty that casinos don't have a positive effect on disposable income and good use of the existing income in the area surrounding :)Are there solid local employers OTHER than the casino in a 15-minute drive? 

Again, others might feel differently here.3) property level due diligence: (takes seconds to weeks per deal): here is where I drill in with the low-level details.a) pro forma popping: I examine all the assumptions, and see if they are overoptimistic or not.

At times, the seller may back out, we may uncover bad things about the property during the due diligence period which will cause us to back out of the deal, or financing may fall through.What makes it even worse, we, as investors, may incur some soft costs (costs incurred prior to closing) which end up being sunk costs.However, as investors, we are relentless in our pursuit of cash-flow.

I would think your insurance agent might have access to some historical information for a specific area as they would want to examine this closely for their underwriting.

Also, when not occupied, the PITI on a high-end home can quickly erode prior cash flows.