Upgrades include a fully remodeled kitchen, renovated bathrooms, new durable flooring, contemporary fixtures, and efficient heating and cooling systems.

You know the model and have systems so tapping into your equity is a smart move.

Your first hire is unlikely to work out though, was you won't have a good hiring system in place. - So, recommend having that first hire document the crap out of what you want them to do.

But, for instance, I sent them a notice of rent increase effective February 1 and needed them to confirm that they have accepted the new payment terms through our electronic payment system, and even after repeated notices, they are not responding.

There are easy to use systems that will help you do this, @Angelo Llamas.

Once you feel you've built a strong team with your first property and have solid systems in place, I would then start buying more aggressively and taking on bigger projects.I suggest reading this BP article on the core 4.https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/core-four-real-estate-team

It was one of my first claims and I learned how their claim system works and never failed again. 

It was the system that afforded this.

A third party company that integrates with our system.

As an agent, I personally would love to hear your thoughts on how the implementation of AI will affect agents system processes or how it already has, however I would love to hear about it's impact in all facets of real estate.Apologies if this is a repeat post, I haven't searched much on the forums for this yet.