Here's a quick list we use when advising clients:Avoid septic if possible (higher long-term maintenance)No power lines or flood zones (hurts resale/rentability)Good school district and low-crime zip codeNo HOA or landlord-unfriendly restrictionsBuilt after 1980 to minimize major capital items (plumbing, electrical, HVAC)Single-story brick homes rent well and cost less to maintainFor a deep dive, check out the BiggerPockets books “The Book on Rental Property Investing” and “Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat (BRRRR)”.

@Stan Watkins Recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

As a layman, I don't run into them, and usually need my cpa to reference one / send it to me to read to educate myself.  

Fortunately, people with criminal records typically have other issues like bad credit or landlord references. 

This is common, and you want to make sure you fully understand this before entering into an agreement.4.) make a good list of the deferred maintenance items.  

NAICS can be one of items that flags your bank to dig deeper.

A very thorough inspection in the beginning is crucial to build a replacement plan for high dollar items such as the HVAC if they are aging.

It’s totally fine to keep it as one line item on the invoice or receipt.

Apparently, this is deeply embedded in terms and conditions (fineprint) when you sign up, do you really read through even single line item?

In regards to the 50% of availability, are you referring to 50% of the total equity or 50% of the max on the heloc regardless of which amount it's taken out for?