1st month owning a SFR, tenant tells me today she pays the 3rd wk

[Tiffany Drahonovsky]

Hello folks! Thanks in advance for any help. My first few weeks as an investor have been exciting to say the least!

I took a contract assignment and closed on this SFR Jan 16. The prior lease had expired back in Nov. Home is in good shape and happy tenant who takes really good care of the place wants to stay. No restoration/rehab needed, turnkey.

I provided written general terms- we want to keep things in place, rent is $1000, tenant handles snow, grass, etc. I still do not have a lease on this place, an attorney wants $500 to review the Wisconsin forms I downloaded from BP... not sure if I need to pay that, but this is a new wrinkle. 

Tenant is on disability. She gets her check on the 3rd Thurs of the month and states that she has always been paying her rent on the 3rd week, into the current month (that's 3 weeks late in my book). But now she's freaking out as I said this is news to me within the last 2 days. I personally have 2 notes I need to pay on the property before the date she gets her disability. Yes, I can pay those, but really don't have other resources and I' concerned that this initial and immediate interaction will set a precedence of flexibility on the biggest, most important part of the arrangement. 

Due to how well she cares for the home, I really felt that this tenant was the icing on the cake of the deal. The wholesaler promised her that he'd work with a buyer who would want to keep her in place as well. That's why he accepted my offer. 

1) Do I just write the new lease to state payment is due blah blah based on her income and eat this 3 weeks of overhead or are there other options? 

2) Is it worth $500 to have an investor friendly attorney review my state lease or would you just run with it?

3) Do other investors set up a unique bank account for the income and expenses by property? This is in my name currently and the business checking accounts have a lot more fees and requirements... so until I move this to an LLC, I was just planning on using one of my savings accounts and adding a checking to that to be used only for this property so funds do not mingle. Tips in best bookkeeping/banking would be super helpful, I'm a sales manager by day and accounting is not my strong suit.

Thanks much!

Tiffany