I want to start a Rental Portfolio in Denver but I know Nothing

[Kathryn Mills]

I am a first time home buyer. I do not want to buy a house for myself. I want to buy a house to start building a rental portfolio. This would be a side endeavor for me, and I am simply considering this for a small side gig/I have always had an interest in real estate. My questions are intended to build a small foundation of knowledge in order to better understand what I am researching when I am googling about building a rental portfolio.

Here is my current set up:

• $30K downpayment (but would rather not since I am a 1st time buyer)
• I am approved at $500,000
• I have no debt
• Denver Market and Surrounding areas (most of the Denver neighborhoods have rather old homes with a mix of shops, condos, new modern homes, etc).
• I am not ready to find an agent. I want to understand the below better before I start looking. 

Here are my questions (they are not in any particular order, just as they came to mind):

1. How did you get started in rentals and what does your portfolio look like now?
2. Are there real estate agents that specialize in foreclosures, fixer uppers, or auctions?
   1. Are there different types of home actions? (I am looking at a few homes for bank auction, but its an online bid and I am very unfamiliar with this)
   2. How do you decide on a bid amount?
   3. Do real estate agents get involved in a bid/auction set up? Do I need one?
   4. Can one who would have a mortgage bid in a home auction or foreclosure?
   5. How do short sales or foreclosure purchase work (many of the homes I am looking at are under the “foreclosure” category)
   6. What are the questions that you can think of (from your experience) to ask a real estate agent before agreeing to work to find a home.
3. How do you have your rental business set up? LLC or did you even set up anything? I was thinking of setting up an LLC
   1. How do you manager you profits from rentals
   2. How do you manage your taxes from rentals
   3. After you purchase your first home (and say have a $1500 monthly mortgage and then charge $1700 for renting) and rent it out, when/how can you go about getting the next home (with a small downpayment). What is this process?
4. How did you decide the best location for purchase
5. How did you find renters?
6. Is there a way to determine if a neighborhood is best for rentals?
7. Is there any special insurance that is needed with rental properties to protect yourself?
8. What are the best ways to protect yourself against bad renters?
9. What types of spreadsheets/business records do you maintain in order to keep your portfolio organized (I can build my own, just need a list of ideas).
10. What paperwork should I have ready to check my renters (application, lease agreement, etc)
11. Do you do background checks on your renters or credit checks? How and how long?
12. Denver is a Dog City, so what do you do to ensure responsible pet owners... or is this even worth allowing? 
13. Do real estate agents assist with rentals/finding renters? If so, what is the typical cost structure?
14. How do you determine the deposit amount?
15. Do school rating matter that much to renters? What is it about the school rating that actually matter the most?
16. Do you have to notify the city if a home is a rental? Anything special?
17. Do you ever open up your rentals to Air-BnB and are there any special issues with this?
18. Do you provide furniture?
    1. Do you charge anything for furniture in rental price?
    2. How do you ensure your furniture stays nice and clean?
19. How did you find your service companies? (Lawn care, pest control, etc)
    1. How do you keep this cheap?
    2. Can you list all of the types of companies you use to maintain your rentals?
    3. Most Denver neighborhoods are older, is there anything special to think about with older homes as far as maintenance is required? There are basements, so radon?
20. How did you decide the amount to charge by rental?
21. What if the home needs a few updates? I wouldn’t want to customize anything that I am not living in, but I want it nice enough to attract renters… so how do you limit?
22. Do you use any executive placement companies to find renters?
    1. If so, how does the cost structure affect your rental income
    2. Are these worth the investment

I understand some of these questions are very basic. Any thoughts or feedback is greatly appreciated!