It's all very easy to say that good management is the key but if an area has declining demographics it hits values and rents often so you have no exit strategy. 

We are declining the offer due to the verbiage in the contract that allows the property to be "flipped".

Your property will be declining in value.  

Whereas locally it is possible that same investor would have A) seen the property start to decline earlier B) be closer and more willing to do that big effort to turn the property back around or not let it go down in the first placeWhen you long distance invest you do have to be willing to pay 1200 bucks to get on a plane the next morning even with all the technology tools available for instant communication and show your face to let everyone know you are serious.  

If you are not comfortable with the pets, decline to approve them. 

Well, I declined the approximate $400 repair thinking it might be better to buy a new washer.  

The easy answer here is just to create more/higher barriers wherein the applicant will already be declined before you get to that point.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday said that because Pineira's residence was within El Paso city limits, he needed to file a report with El Paso Police Department.Murillo said she also reached out to the Police Department, but nothing has been done.On Tuesday, El Paso police spokesman Darrel Petry said currently the department has ongoing investigations against the Schobers and their company El Paso Home Buyers, but declined to answer any other questions or provide any specifics on the investigations.Complaints against the Schobers and their company by other alleged victims have been featured by Channel 14-KFOX and Channel 26-KINT in the past.

If the area were destroyed by a hurricane, businesses shut down, tourism industry declined etc., would it even be worth rebuilding those buildings on the same lot or just sell the lot and move on. 

Prior to 2006, BK was an automatic decline and we told tenants not to even apply.