New home owner needs Tenents- where to Start?

[Todd Marriott]

Hi everybody, this is my first post and my first rental property! Well, I'm closing on a three bedroom 1 1/2 bath townhome at the beginning of April. I wanted to have some tenants lined up to rent out the extra two rooms in my house and I don't know where to start. I think I can find tenants to fill the rooms but the details about interviewing and the paperwork required is a little cloudy. So my questions are:

How would you go about rooms for rent on a property I haven't bought yet?
What should I ask when interviewing a tenant?
How I go about getting a background check or any other information about my tenants?
What paperwork is necessary for renting a room to a live-in tenant and how do I go about getting the required paperwork?
How do I know what to price the rooms for and how much to deposit to ask for?
And do you think he has seen them to agree to abide by a code of honor is too much?
Is sharing utilities better than including it in the rent?
Should I share my nice TV by putting it in the living room or put my plasma in my room and buy a cheap one for the living room?

Thank you all for your comments :mrgreen: