A lot of the risk of what your talking about with vacancies is avoided by properly screening your tenants and if your getting 1200k per month your tenants should be decent.  

Then it was sort of rinse and repeat.I did notice that was a popular starting point on a BP poll recently (renting out a place you already owned/lived in).It makes sense as you have the financing in place, the transaction complete, plus you have screened the area and the property, know all the maintenance and routines, etc.So your first home may be your first investment property, too, eventually. 

Make sure to screen applicants, run credit, and verify their housing/debt-to-income ratios.

It had HUNDREDS of threads about stories just like yours.The number one question when someone posted the problem and asked how to avoid it in the future:Tell us about your tenant screening process.

This is also the part where I need to be sure that I have systems in place to deal with maintaining the property and tenants (like screening tenants, contractors, and property managers).

We are currently working on screening tenants for when we move out of our duplex and, once we get settled in our new home, will be looking to find more rental properties. 

However, that means we have never done tenant screening before. 

Buffett says, "Buy when there is Blood in the Streets."

We obviously then fixed the contract and screened our next tenant the best we could and he has been awesome!

This market may not be the best entry point for a newbie--screening tenants is a skill that is learned over time and it is absolutely critical to success for this type of property.