We are preparing our house for rent and need to update our stairs spindles and steps.

If you are prepared for that and have the funds to do repairs and renos to get them to market value, then try it. 

When I was on my 5th or 6th transaction, I found a deal off market and was prepared to close but had an agent/ investor friend look over everything for me.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, just so long as you're prepared to do the work. 

Quote from @Carlos Ptriawan: also since most of the advice in BP is coming from sell side, the return we got is the normal return hence why I am no longer interested.I am interested to gain abnormal return.my exerience- making 80k-100k per flip from 500k home is possible, only in CA- Out of state could be a good appreciation vehicle too- the wealth builder is created when we invest in expensive state only (CA/HI) with at least two properties- invest locally is thousand time better than investing outside because of the potential it creates- househacking and ADU is finance freedom LOLBut i develop a strong very atypical thesis also:- there' nothing passive about real estate investment- investing in syndication is more active than direct ownership- the risk of the unknown of unknown is the biggest issue in any real estate- at the end of the day, the probability of we as landlord is hitting problem with tenant/city is like 100% so be prepared- the difference between different type of real estate investment is the unknown factor and that's always the least discussed- strategy is always different depending on macro climate, if mney is cheap leveraging equity is the best, if money is expensive then buying debt is good option- don't chase best return but chase the most understood risk and capital preservation as a goal- not all RE investment has equal return/risk , syndication in multifamily for example is outsourcing all risk to investor while gp makes the most money lol- direct investment is always always better than indirect investment, except in certain asset class and extremely good sponsor that could find a noticeable return/risk reward.- donot follow the crowd, when everybody else is buying then it's good time to sell, vice versa LOL- if the math doesn't pencil, GTFO lol I do not agree with everything in this post but agree with a lot of it so I thought I would add my view.

That will give them instant cashflow to prepare for potential vacancy and the downtime that it may take to turn the unit.

Third Financial Preparation Evaluate your budget, savings, and credit score.

Do you list these or do you call an investor who is prepared to put in the effort to straighten things out?

I always have family and friends giving me negatives like " what is it doesn't rent" or who is going to "pay that much for rent" or "what if the tenant burns the house down" are these realistic situations and how do I prepare and understand to to come back if anything like this happens how do I plan ahead.3. should I go for a newer house with little to no rehab for 415,000 or something like 350,000 with like 10-20 in rehab?

You want to have iron clad cases prepared if/when you have to be there.