We also retain the right to vet (screen and approve) any new tenants.

A lot of times, facebook has been great in locating people (or their relatives) or screening tenant applicants.

Screen your tenants well and enforce your lease.

Hedges along property lines can give that screening from the loud, messy neighbor.

But, as with all business, a solid foundation, due diligence, and proper screening is necessary for your success.

In the meantime, some ideas for ways to mitigate the monthly losses would be to make capital improvements in order to raise rents quicker, look into repositioning it as a short term rental/corporate housing, collect as many fees as you can (be diligent with late fees, collect additional pet fees) and lower expenses by being as hands-on and bootstrapping as much as possible until you can start making positive cash flow on this thing: self manage, mow the lawn, minimize vacancies by screening very well, make repairs and do turnovers yourself, all the things you wouldn't be able to do when investing out of state.

I’ve never heard of a landlord knowingly allowing this (why would they let people they haven’t screened use their property.) usually this is done by lying or “forgetting to tell” the landlord. 

Have you considered using a Google Voice # to set up a voicemail message so you can screen responses and not have to personally take a ton of calls (i.e. call back the ones that interest you based on voicemail responses, also gives you a chance to research their property a bit more before you call them back).  

Also make sure you are screening your tenants.

There is a white rectangle in the upper right portion of this screen that is a search function.