I also have heard Canadian investors prefer an LLP set up as opposed to the more typical LLC set up. 

Check out my personal favorite, Set For Life by Scott Trench , or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.3.

Conventional mortgages require higher FICO, reserves (money set aside to pay the loan), tax returns...just on that note, they typically won't count any income from the property rents until that money hits your tax returns for 2 years. 

After a thorough set up with them we simply email them receipts with a note for what it was for/what project and they allocate it into the right category.Now if you have the capacity to learn quickbooks or employ someone who is versed in it then that is your best bet. 

STR are all about understanding the market - buy right, set up right, market right.

As a beginner this is me giving  ground to set my real estate goals and start working toward them.

Particularly be sure to include your goals for real estate investing so that folks can help you. 2) Follow your favorite forum topics and set up keyword alerts!

Our tenants never object to any of this.

As someone new looking to get started and hopefully set myself up for retirement in ~15 years, is that enough time or should I just put all my money in a brokerage account and save myself a lot of aggravation ? 

I am setting up an LLC to buy rental property and one member of the LLC will be a new real estate agent.