Identify any deferred maintenance or repairs needed2.Review the legal aspects, including zoning, permits, property taxes, insurance, and any existing contracts or leases.

I intend to take pictures of every part of the house to thoroughly document the condition before we move out and send those pictures to the landlord as a proof so they cannot claim anything false after they move back in - is that a good idea?

@Austin Bright Texas is currently seeing very aggressive premium hikes due to several large insurance companies pulling out of markets and due to claims for numerous storms and natural disasters (hail, hurricanes, Houston floods, etc).

In case anyone was distracted by your lengthy response, I specifically asked for your credentials and how you cover "learning LLC's", "learning asset protection" & "learning tax write offs" just to get an understanding of your training program.

Also don't forget to look into your tax treatment for signage.

I wish I had all my mint data for some end of the year tax reporting, and am not scrambling to find something new.

It’s about a 20-24% ROI roughly since I don’t know about my taxes and such to do this.

--> Automates a lot of your expense tracking --> Much cheaper than most softwares/fancy sheets --> Will probably save you a couple of thousand extra on your taxes if you follow all the recommendations. 

Check with a tax professional, but if you have lived in the home for 2 of the previous 5 years, you may not owe any capital gains tax, and so a 1031 is irrelevant.If you didn't you may want to wait.If you do go ahead, read about 'mortgage boot'.

Over the last 6-7 months, I’ve been doing my best to “get smart” on real estate investing, starting off with Rich Dad principles, which led to Rich Dad Advisor (McElroy, Sutton, etc.) audiobooks, which led to BP podcasts and doing YT research on tax benefits…I’m feel ready to take action and start putting everything into practice but still not certain which method is best for my first investment property.