The mortgage will be 1.2M if I decide to rent or I could sell the older home and bring the mortgage down on the new home.Consider the situation, interest rates and the market, what makes more sense?

But, for the best potential tenant pool, I would suggest looking to invest in neighborhoods in close proximity to hospitals, colleges, local markets, easy commute, provide sense of safety etc.

I typically sell single family houses as Turnkey's to investors from California and to offset the profit by buying into an apartment complex to get the tax write offs makes a good deal of sense.

Would love to jump on a call to tell you the reasons why investing in Memphis makes sense.

If someone is bringing a deal and you're determing if the numbers might make sense, I use a Dollar/SQFT estimate based on amount of rehab needed

With a utility provided by the government, it makes sense to keep the bill in your name because usually if it doesn't get paid it eventually becomes a lien on the house. 

I think you will have the best time connecting with people in person.In the meantime you can start by looking at all the properties that are on the market in your area to get a sense of what's available and what prices they are closing at vs what they are listed at. 

If you want rental property, you could take that equity and buy several houses better suited to renting.Selling now makes sense because you can also avoid the capital gains tax because you lived in the property 2 of the last 5 years. 

It takes 5-15 minutes on any state site to set up on your own, without an operating agreement and articles which you will only need later.If you are setting up a single-member (just you), you don't need help and setting it up now for rental properties only makes sense if you have cash.

This makes sense and sounds like a good approach.