If not, how do you prevent that?

If you don’t sell, and don’t rent for high enough, your rental property will probably prevent you from buying another home (Debt to Income).

Yes you don't eat a mortgage, but you will have costs such as keeping the heat on in the dead of winter to prevent pipes from freezing, insurance, etc. you want to be conservative with the numbers to give you worst case scenario. how are you looking with capital expenditures?

I often break it down into the "five pillars" of protecting your assets.1st pillar is avoiding unnecessary and risky activities (don't drink and drive, insurance generally won’t cover your poor decisions) and take good care of your investments - these simple steps will help you prevent lawsuits before they even occur.2nd pillar is a good insurance policy as that cover the majority of your exposure.

@William Brown  I've bought some bank owned foreclosures in the past and it was very specific in the contract that it could not be assigned or sold for xx amount more than purchase within 30 days (preventing a double closing). 

Another $400 deposit can be enough to prevent someone from moving in.3.

If your business can not run and your employees can not rent to provide you a income, naturally you stop feeling bad and for others could have prevented their circumstances and start to feel bad for your wallet.

Homeowner to see if she'd like to discuss preventing the foreclosure.

I don't see where the profit is in this without a short sale as there's really no equity at all, and yes a short sale will almost always require an arms length addendum preventing family transfers.

That helps to prevent any bitterness from the existing property management firm.Did you ever resolve the 'Additional Repair Work' or paid to move on?