When a tenant moves out, transfer the deposit back to Checking so it's ready to apply towards expenses or to refund to the Tenant.If you end up with excess funds in the Checking account, I recommend you transfer it to a third account that is specifically designated for future investments.

I did a test to see interest at $3,000 that got some good candidates, but didn't take them through the whole qualification process because it's not ready to rent yet. 

The best way to think about it is you're in the business of renting a property-that business isn't operational until it's ready and available for rent (aka in service). 

Money now is very good because you are new and ready to do all the work, but the examples you'll hear about are people posting on BP saying, "well, I did all the work and they got a lot or most of the profit." 

Welcome to the community and be ready for a huge amount of information at your finger tips.

Everything looks rent ready. 

If you want to do it yourself, be ready to answer text messages at 3 AM, solve problems within a 2 hour window, deal with contractors who aren’t able to “turn” a vacancy quick enough, and guests who want “instant” gratification.  

There are a lot of market-specific issues you'll have to grapple with and also, there are plenty of landmines in MFR on its own in CT that you'll have to be ready for, in addition to the nuances and complexities of developing something like this.

Does this matter if you're not optimizing for building a ton of wealth to pass onto kids? 

Looks like you're ready to take a plunge.