Starting out landlord in Pittsburgh, PA

[Peter B.]

Hi all,

I purchased my first property a little over a year ago. I've been living in it, and plan to purchase my next property soon to continue with house hacking. Once I find my next place, I'd like to put my current property up for rent. 

Just some high level questions:

• Should I create some sort of legal structure before I start renting? i.e. LLC, S-corp. Is this something that I should be able to tackle on my own, or do I need to hire a lawyer/CPA to help?
• From the financing side of things... I got a conventional mortgage for my first property. If I should be setting up a legal structure, would I have to transfer that mortgage into the legal entity? 

I'll be looking for a lawyer/CPA to help me out with this, but I wanted to get the high level answers down first.

Thanks!

Pete