It can come at the very end so that you're not wasting your time (and theirs), but the kind of long term damage that a bad tenant will cause to a property is not something that they can quickly and easily hide so you want to get eyes on how they are currently living.The age of the house has nothing to do with section 8.

Everything I read online says DO NOT use exterior stain on the interior due to the fact it gives off harmful chemicals. 

To name a few she damaged her unit and the unit under her and not willing to pay for the damages that she caused (I had both places fixed).

You want to trust people of course, but it only takes one bad one to cause cleaning headaches as well as unhappy neighbors.  

I’m the personal representative on the estate, seems to be causing me trouble getting adscr on it.

I also have zero debt (student loans paid off, bought and paid off multiple cars, etc), but my credit score isnt amazing just mostly cause of lack of accounts (lets call it around 620 fico 8, higher on credit karma).  

Unless you own the house cash, in addition to the advice you've received, you can't just transfer a house from personal to an LLC without risking the option of the loan being called since the LLC does not have two years of tax returns.For new investors without cash to buy, LLCs are about the biggest cause of analysis paralysis out there.

I didn't say anything about him not moving in and for that year I struggled to cover the regular bills myself causing late mortgage payments and other things.

I agree with @Michael Plaks that the pricing should be discussed prior to the start of the engagement.My firm does not like the hourly invoice method because I find it can potentially cause anxiety to clients who may not know the final price.if you were a nice client and paid an hourly fee, maybe there was a lot of time towards 'setting' you up as a client(inputting your properties, prior year carryforwards, depreciation schedule, etc) which won't be a cost for you going forward.Best of luck.

For the most part, if your running real estate somewhate properly, the risk isnt your property causing you to get sued....Think of it as you are hopefully protecting you property from yourself in the event a motorist sues you over a car accident, you dont want them getting access to your real estate assets.