Rental Paperwork Basics

[James Driver]

Hi! 

After about 6 months of education and a lot of shopping around, my plan is to buy a property for the first time this year. I am most interested in getting into buy and hold investing, and because my wife and I are young I am ideally looking to house-hack with a multi-family. I feel like this would give me a lot of education value and let me learn the ropes at a good pace. 

I feel fairly confident about most aspects of rental properties other than paperwork. I apologize if this is a stupid question/topic but I know it is important to cover yourself legally with forms for renting and I have no experience. If I plan to manage the property myself what  kind of paper work do I need? A lease agreement, application, background check? Am I supposed to write up the contract myself? Just wondering how this side of things is usually done when trying to self manage a property. Thank you in advance for any wisdom on this.

-James