And the hardest part of all this is finding sufficient labor to rehab/manage the property. 

Hope this helps!

That would give me pause before buying rentals in CA or IL.I will be following this with great interest.

I personally don't recommend bothering with an LLC until you have $1 Million in equity.Warning: I am not an attorney, and this can be a complicated topic.

I wouldn't touch this. 

If this is a long term hold you'll want to have finishes that match comps, but are also still very durable for tenants.

This forum so far has helped me very much in learning.Thanks in advance  How,? 

I have found that the profit margins are very low in this model if the house is in a C/D neighborhood because you are limited to the amount of rent you can charge for each room.

I believe this is what they call a pier and beam foundation which I have no experience with so I have no idea what it would cost to fix. 

Please use an attorney to write these documents - this is the equivalent of going to see a dentist in the van down by the river - it's great until something goes wrong and then you could be completely screwed