In order to limit that, I sometimes didn't screen as carefully as I should have and ended up with some undesirable situations that I could have avoided by screening more carefully and tolerating a little more vacancy loss.

We use tools such as these (any manufacturer/brand) and a mallet to pound them into fully locking.

My wife woke up from the pounding rain at 4:00AM ( they only come at night! 

You know the saying- don't be penny wise and pound foolish.  

Examples of pitfalls include purchasing in an undesirable area, not understanding the market values (vs. list prices), not knowing the rental values (current and market), inheriting bad tenants, buying a lemon, going rogue on renting and management with no contacts / systems / no legal understanding of PA and Municipal landlord-tenant laws, not having trusted resources and contractors in place, using out of state lenders or shaky financing, throwing lipstick on a pig when renovating a house and wondering why it's ARV isn't increasing, tenants are renting, etc.

Pound Sand and buy a new one. 

Sure the million dollar suburbs are nice if you have that kind of money and are playing the larger appreciation game but dollar for dollar pound for pound when it comes down to rent to value ratio its difficult to find the same kind of cash on cash returns section 8 rental properties offer in Detroit.

It’s clear that the companies dominating this space are keeping the best deals for themselves, leaving only the undesirable properties for the open market.

That new part of Chicago near Schaumburg is great...I am pretty familiar with it because I am originally from Elgin.I know personally that I create undesired stress by taking on too much too fast.

The 800-pound gorilla is off our backs.