I am a bit apprehensive about accepting them but will research local laws to make sure that I am not in violation of anything.

I purchased a house in good condition for $55,000, with the seller accepting the lot as worth $5,000 down payment and seller financing for $50,000 for 20 years at 5% interest.

The typical example I see where I can accept a tenant with low scores is this.

Honestly this is why the govt needs to change the criteria for an accredited investorIt has not changed the amounts in like 40 years and many people making $250k a year cannot afford to lose $50 or $100k which is happening now as many use the “accredited investor” as a status but the only status is you can lose $ and govt doesn’t care.Besides that the jobs act introduced crowdfunding and regulation a+ that allows people to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars at a time not $50k and accepts non accredited.  

Thanks in advance You can only pay for stuff that actually accepts CCs.

Your thought process on the contractor providing quotes to possibly "win" a job may seem correct on surface level as a lot of businesses offer "free-mium" products - but ultimately time is money, especially in real estate where good contractors are in high demand and could better spend their time finishing a project before accepting the next one. 

Can I say for example, "rented out x unit this month", or do I need to go over each day and list all of the times I answered messages, fielded calls, accepted tenants, did the lease, etc?

Accountants are in such demand, that the best are not even accepting clients half the time.The other problem I see often with accountants on here is that they specialize in larger investors, and have really high prices when you as a smaller investor do not need all the bells and whistles.Another thing I see is folks thinking they need to have a tax professional in their state.

I would choose Candidate #2 providing you have acceptable verification of their income - bank statements that multiply out to what the past couple years tax returns indicate on the business.

We thought we had to accept whatever was presented to us, but that experience taught me otherwise.