This property is a 2,500 square foot, up-down duplex. 97 years old but freshly renovated and in beautiful condition.

Good job in your action of building educational background in REI!

Ideally I'd like to meet them face to face, but I pre-screen before I allow them to see it, and then I very thoroughly screen with credit/background/employment verification during the actual application process.  

. - Do you have tenants pay for & run a credit check & background check each time? 

It's honorable of you as well to reach out to others and seek what they are doing, what's working and what's not through this beautiful forum.

I have been poring through online articles but haven't found much on the subject.For some background I do not own a home at the moment, but am looking at SFR and Duplex rental properties in the area I live in right now.

These homes are beautifully done, marketing to the highest rents in the area.

Only one person but as an active investor who regularly surfs Zillow for background and occasional inquiries I can tell you the only call I ever make are to the listing agent.

Aside from providing the basics (ie. listing tool to get the property published to 10+ major sites, scheduling tool to schedule viewings, tenant screening with comprehensive applications -- pulled reports from TransUnion, which include nationwide criminal background checks + credit checks + eviction history, digital lease creation tool, rent collection tool, and maintenance tracking tool), some services also offer your tenants additional capabilities which makes it an easier sell on your end when getting them to transition over (ie. their ability to report on-time rent payments to the credit bureaus; this can create an added incentive for making sure they pay that rent on time).

It is not as "glamorous" as buying your own property, but it lets you learn, gain experience, and in many ways determine if you want to own property on your own/with investors, before taking the leap and potentially being locked into something for 3-5 yrs or more that you hate.And believe me, if you can take an underperforming asset, and turn it into a rockstar for someone else, you will have a much better background to pitch to investors than someone who has never run a property on their own.