The California Court Company said:
if we are about to become a landlord, what steps we can do to protect ourselves? lower the rent price to create a bidding war and ask for 2 month security deposit and 1 year prepaid rent?
This depends largely on where you are acquiring the property... tenant rights vary greatly depending on the city and state. If you are unfamiliar with an area it's a good idea to hire a property manager initially to help you navigate the local market.
If you don't want to use a property manager than it might be a good idea to hire a local agent to help you with the process to find and screen a tenant. Things to look for are good credit scores and high income but those just reduce the probability of getting a bad tenant, if you happen to get one there's generally not much you can do if it's in a tenant-friendly area like Socal/Norcal.
At the end of the day it's important to remember that missing out even a years rent is not really a big deal in the time horizon of owning an investment property... your payments are still paying down principal and your property will still appreciate in the long term. And conversely if you're looking for something that needs to cash flow right away or make money quickly then a real estate investment is not your best bet to begin with.