I would like to start keeping books on my properties vs having their financial information buried in my personal finances.My questions for the community:1) If my goal is to eventually seek financing from others and therefore I will need P&L Statements and other reports on my properties, what software should I use - Quickbooks, Buildium, etc?

I'd like to get an opinion from the community regarding the eventual likelyhood of rising interest rates & subsequent lack of purchasing power.  

Divide the cost of those items over 15 or 20 years so its not a suprise when it eventually needs replaced. 

Eventually are plan is to combine the homes into an LLC and create a small business!

Maybe not right away, maybe not for a long time but eventually you will get burned and if you get burned on a property 2,000 miles away everything is more expensive because you are paying someone like me to do it for you and I do not work for free.Investors with small portfolios need to know that they can afford to cover the holding costs of the properties when there is no rental income.

Multiple properties can eventually support your plan of cash flow being used to buy more properties.In the meantime, you can look for partners.  

Also if i am able to do that, what if eventually the tenant wants to exercise their option to buy, will they pay me in full and then i pay the person i leased from??

So eventually you can land a deal with good cash flow in a good neighborhood.

My hope is to find a single-family (preferably a 3bd-2bth) in my hometown that I can slowly rehab and eventually, have the option to, rent out in the future.

I was lucky to find The Bigger Pockets Podcasts which eventually led me to the website.