Starting Out: Rookie Landlord/Investor Questions!

[Jonathan Firouzi]

Hi Everyone!

Let me just start by saying I'm excited to be here at this point. Without rambling, let me just introduce myself and my situation and ask for some tips from you pros on here. Basically, I am the first one in my family to take on real estate investing so this is all new territory for me. I have read books, websites, forums, and watched podcasts but now that it's time there are still plenty of questions.

So I am in Phoenix, AZ. I purchased my first home coming up on a year ago. I am ready to purchase another, so i started talking to my credit union about getting pre-approved for the next purchase. They mentioned they'd like a statement why I need a new primary residence, which I provided for them. Additionally they told me that I would need a lease agreement for my current house to offset the PITIA. They also said they need to do a 1007 - Comparable rent schedule (which they would do at the time of the new purchase closing). 

So that quickly made me realize I have a ton of questions about processes that I don't know about! So I guess some of those are ..

* Does turning my home into a rental cause my interest rate to go up since it's not considered an investment property?

* I set up a meeting with a CPA who is familiar with Real Estate to help me through the process of creating an LLC to purchase the home under and help with write offs and taxes (saw most people recommended that on this website). Any specific things I should ask about?

* Which do most landlords find to be the best site/app to post your home for rent?

* Which site/app do you recommend for background and credit checks when screening for tenant? (I know there are many that have them all in the same site such as zillow..do you all like that or not?)

* Should I buy an online lease agreement through zillow or something similar or is that a no-no?

* do you/should you do frequent property check ups to make sure everything is going well with the house?

Thank you to all who take the time to respond! I really appreciate the help and input...I guess it's one of those situations where I'm the first in my circle to really proactively invest in this manner and "you don't know , what you don't know.."