Hey Doug! Congrats on your first investment property. I'm a newbie in central CT as well and wanted to share a few things I've found extremely helpful in getting prepped for my first rental. First things first, I'd HIGHLY recommend reading "the book on managing rental properties" by Brandon Turner. Among other things, the book will walk you through how to set up your landlord endeavors as a business, including company policies, tenant requirements, late fees, eviction protocol, you name it. Whilst reading through, I'd recommend taking notes and actually doing the things he talks about like creating your policy binder, etc... The end of the book also includes a brief breakdown of state-specific landlord-tenant laws that you might find helpful.
Regarding leases, I've been using a site called ezlandlordforms.com to create custom leases among other forms. The site is super easy and includes a lot of state-specific line items that I've found helpful in getting ready. It walks you through a bunch of line items that might be included in a standard lease and you can opt to add in additional items if you choose. Like other folks have said, CT is very tenant friendly so it's important to be familiar with at least fundamental landlord-tenant laws in the state.
Happy to stay in touch if you like, seeing we're both just getting started in the same geography.
Hope that helps and best of luck!
