New Member from southwest Fort Worth!!

[Holly Morgan]

Good morning everyone! My name is Holly and my fiance Ken and I are looking to get our current home ready for the rental market as we have accepted a position back in Southeast Texas, close to our families where we grew up. We have never done anything like this before so ANY advice would be greatly appreciated but here are some specific questions I have.....
1) What upgrades are the most cost effective to get at LEAST the $1100/month house payment we have.
2) Will be looking for a rental manager as we will be moving about 6 hours away, any suggestions?!
3) Thinking of leaving behind washer, dryer, fridge, and microwave...range and oven are built ins....is this a good idea or bad?! I was thinking to leave them "as is", but have in the rental agreement that if they break, they will NOT be replaced by us! Is that possible?!
4) Fiance mentioned lessening the credit check etc to "open us up to more tenants" but this scares the tar outta me! Any suggestions?!

We do know we will need a plumber to come in to do some repairs, does anyone know of a handyman that they use for repairs such as these? Most others we can do ourselves.

I guess I need to do some more homework! I seem to have more questions as I keep typing. If anyone is from the area, would love to chat and get some ideas! Any suggestions greatly appreciated!!