My background is in finance and accounting, so I have a fairly structured, organized, budgeting mind.

@Kareem Protain"I also don't want to file as a foreign llc"If you want to evict a tenant, I imagine you'll want to use that state's legal system to do it.Generally, organize the LLC where the property is located. 

I don’t want to pay for professional staging or organizing services. 

You have to understand they're doing their best in ugly, uncivil situations that require mediation and have real stakes.What they want out of you is consistency in documentation, a willingness to work with tenants, a grown-up attitude, a hesitancy to bring things to court that don't require court to settle.

Tom Franson with caliber home loans is a good lender that is well organized and keeps buyers up to date.

Thought I'd do it right by using an attorney and they wanted to charge me ~$5k to file Articles of Organization and create Operating Agreement

This will help your business grow in an organic, relationship based way.

@Noam AdlerUnfortunately the biggest challenge in property management is communication with owners and tenants and vendors as well as the property management company not having proper policies and procedures and structure.Very similar to you I started a property management company because I could not find anybody to manage my own portfolio of homesOne thing I would suggest you want to learn and be very aware of is that you are opening a business which is one of the highest regulated in the real estate industry with the most lawsuit involved take the time to educate yourself regarding all the IRS local property code as well as real estate law and accounting.create the proper business structure and organization chart ,mission ,vision ,culture before you start managing even one doorUnderstanding that you want to ask people what they want but you also have to remember that you were running a business that needs to be a profitable business that also keeps owners out of lawsuits as well as yourself.I would also suggest that you make sure you have enough capital to fund your business to be able to invest in things such as software and other things that will make your business run more efficiently

I work with an asset protection organization and we do a lot of work in this area, along the lines of what Frank has said. 

Fair warning, I work with an organization that specializes in asset protection(protecting from lawsuits), so I have a lot I can share with you on this, though I'll try to keep it briefer on this thread.