This would mean there wont be a mitigation of risk in the event of a failure. 

Steve Rozenberg no guarantees but you can mitigate that risk by taking first and last months rent along with one months rent as deposit when they sign the lease.Not only do you get a better quality tenant who can pay for this upfront, but you also have a better security blanket.

Don't forget you are required to mitigate your damages - if you just let the place sit vacant and don't do anything to find a replacement tenant - your former tenant has a claim on their deposit.

How have you or others mitigated these risks?

Of course when I get deals with 7 figure profits that yield 100%+ reurns, Im not passing on them.I also agree with Bill that diversifying over several deals can provide risk mitigation.

regardless of what you do, be smart with your numbers, do thorough due diligence and never buy on proforma rents ;-)its been my experience that banks are most comfortable lending bigger amounts of $ to people who have a solid track record or pretty deep pockets, both of which mitigate their risk ... so i agree with kelly's recommendations.

It's a pain learning this way, but the trick is to get the inspection scheduled way in advance to try and mitigate the pain of waiting.

It sounds like remote is challenging, but much of that challenge can be mitigated if I "splurge" a bit on (and am hyper critical when choosing) the PM.

After Sandy the town did mitigate the taxes on a flood damaged home and also utility companies removed meters although we had electric and water (no gas) but those properties were not habitable.

Talking with the foreclosing attorneys is useless, you need the loss mitigation dept.