However, if you belong to their associations or know them personally all of a sudden you get a split or referral fee. 

For Example on a Saturday morning this past winter Mike and I went and looked at a 10 unit building, we walked through it went to sit down with the seller and all of a sudden to my horror I hear Mike say “If I give you $500 right now can we buy it for asking price”.As it turns out the seller got another asking price offer that afternoon but he already took our money.

Hurricane Harvey contributed to the local market's surge.

But why the sudden need for the contract since they’re paying tenants?

I do only have this one house, and I keep very detailed records, but I realize there are suddenly a bunch of tax rules that may affect me and I know little about.Should I have a home inspection done to determine any code issues or safety issues to correct prior to converting the property to a rental?

All of the sudden the leads will start pouring in. 

you and your family lived there for 5 years and didn't hear voices.. so, IF they are suddenly  hearing voices and things are getting moved around by other "room mates" it probably means THEY came with "these ghosts" and I would ask them how many ghosts are there in the house, whatever they say, 2 or 3, then say "oh well I can't believe you guys brought in additional tenants without my consent,  unfortunately rent has to be adjusted because of the EXTRA tenants" hahaseriously, ask them if they are looking to break the lease and move out of the haunted house?

For example, what if there's suddenly an eviction for non payment or even two in the property? 

I have some health issues flaring up this week that make me unable to reliably sit and focus so I would be afraid to waste your time right now (I started writing this message yesterday for example and suddenly had to go lay down before I could finish).I would love to take you up on that though once my health stuff hopefully settles down again.The quote about the quitclaim deed was a website where the county lists the properties for sale, not actually on the Ada county website (I don't think I ever saw the word "quitclaim" on the Ada County site) - but I did find on the Canyon County (right next door to Ada county, I actually live in Canyon):"For each property sold, the County will transfer its interest by quitclaim deed without warranty or representation."  

I wouldn't like it much is the water bill suddenly double.