Buying Rental Property

[Sam Schlacter]

Hi All,

This is my first post as I just bought my first rental property and came across this fantastic site. Hope to stay engaged with others on this forum.

Some background - I just closed on a town house property and have taken a mortgage on it. I'm still in early 30s and while I have decent job didn't have all cash down available so took the mortgage. Mortgage is on 15 yrs term and including expected property taxes, HOA (~$200), P & I etc, its coming about 650/mnth. The going rate for rent is 980/month (this is a 2 bed/2 bth property). I have already few people interested and looking at other properties around it looks like average time to rent out this property is about 15 days. It's in the up and coming area with good number of businesses, malls and overall professional crowd around.

Now the questions :-) -

1.) I would have net cash flow of 300/mnth if I rent out at 980..Do you think that's considered good? Is it better to keep the mortgage and gain 300/month, which eqates to about 22% in yearly return based what I have paid at closing - or, should I pay off the mortgage asap (~55k) to maximize gain by avoiding interest? Which strategy is better?
2.) Pets - Many contacting me has pets. This property is in FL. I am planning to collect one month rent and one month security deposit on signing of lease. Can I ask for additional pet deposit of $500? One prospective tenant said its too steep. How much can I collect as a pet deposit to be fair?
3.) Background Check - I came across website smartmove that seem to be pretty good on tenant screening though I haven't used it yet. Could anyone suggest if that's a good site for screening? Also, in terms of salary, what should I screen for in a salary for a prospective tenant? I read articles where it is suggested to check on salary. But what exactly I should check on salary?
4.) Once I have the tenant in the property, is it advisable to give home address to mail the rent check? Or is there any website/service for rent collection? (not the property management).
5.) This town house and others around were built at 80-90k around 2001 and then in 2006 at the peak were sold at around 180k. I picked it on short sell at 55k. Is there any way to calculate whether what I bought is a good price to pay? I am just wondering if there is any standard calculation method?
6.) What type of items people claim in tax deduction on a rental property?

All right, enough of questions and I apologize if some of these questions appear silly. I am trying to take correct steps to make my investment successful and be fair as a landlord.

Thanks,
Sam Schlacter