Part of the secret to being a successful landlord is to be sufficiently capitalized to get through the seemingly lengthy vacancies.

Like @Adam Kent said, discount the last month only with a lengthy lease.

I have a lengthy Legal Opinion, from my seasoned Legal Team regarding this matter.

Thank you for reading to my lengthy introduction!

Any dispute between the Renter and Manager regarding amount of payment, timing of payment, lack of payment, late-charges incurred, overdue rent, stoppage of a recurring payment set up through an Automatic Authorization Form, and the like will be handled exclusively between the Renter and Manager. eRentPayment, LLC is merely providing an electronic rent transaction service to facilitate rent payments between the Renter and Manager and does not inherit the risk assumed by any party in relation to any transactions performed through the service."

Even in periods of economic slowdowns, people need to take time off and vacation so if a lengthy road trip or flight are off the table, then a staycation is the only option and Joshua Tree is the perfect staycation destination for SoCal locals to experience the feeling of getting away without going far.

(I apologize for the length)I have an investor (just one) looking to get involved in REI, who is self employed. 

Nothing lengthy if you don't want.  

Here the are usual ones I see: - Won’t qualify for financing due to needing major repairs- Existing (bad) tenants paying under market rents with no easy way to replace them once you take possession - Probate or title issue requiring going through a lengthy court process to resolve And the ones that are easy to spot from the public sites like Redfin / Zillow etc such as prices too high or bad location such as right next to a 10 lane freeway. 

The average stay length is less than 7 days>> you can deduct losses against w2 income dependsing on if your AGI is over or under $150k.