If you're even somewhat active in the purchasing/selling space, I highly recommend you obtain your Real Estate license for the following reasons:- CE credit often overlaps and counts toward both licenses.

That’s more about screening and your rental criteria (credit score etc) than about the fee. 

You have your loan, credit, finance information.You can use your credit card to pay for repairs.

I don't have great credit and it will be my first home purchase.

I had luck with local banks and credit unions.

Can anyone tell me how this might effect my personal credit.

Are you doing full background and credit checks on new tenants?

@Shea Davidson In my experience, servicers range from mediocre to terrible.

If they are the best you can do is pay enough that they can come up with the rest and don't completely destroy their credit. 

This might still be a lot for applicants in a C-class neighborhood, but it will be much less work for both of you if they can do it online (again, assuming they have access to a computer and a debit or credit card).