Ask for their previous rental history and follow up with the other landlords to reduce the risk.

Excellent ideas here, @Lucas Carl  I use a similar strategy for my LTRs in order to reduce the impending stress caused by tenants with the wrong mentality.Reading your post brought to mind a question I've never considered before:  are vacation rentals subject to Fair Housing Laws in the same way that LTRs are?  

For tenants who became unemployed and hours cut I reduced their rent.

All extra cash from tax prorations is now used to reduce principal.

Do the Seller's want all cash now, or would they prefer to do some owner finance over 5 years to make a little interest and reduce their tax bill?   

Taxes went up" - they didn't, or you appeal a year from now and get them reduced.

This vehicle costs a bit more to setup initially due to the legal structure, but will be much more useful and will save you a lot in reduced per-transaction fees from the custodian over time.Several providers of these types of plans are active here on BP. 

The fed can print as much as they want if people is hesitant they will not spend hence reducing the velocity of money and probably tanking the economy.Summing up, I think the article is on point.

Maybe call a few of them and see how willing the owner is ready to reduce rent.

In the example above, if your payment due was $1,100.....then $1,000 goes to the interest due and the extra $100 reduces your loan balance to $99,900, so......The following month, 1% of $99,900 is $999....so that amount goes to interest for the month and the rest of your $1,100 payment, $101, goes toward principal, lowering your loan balance to $99,799....and so on and so on.