You should make sure you prepare a scope of work before you get a a contractor to give you a bid. 

REI is a specific and complicated subset of business finance, accounting, and tax preparation - and taking advantage of the tax law to pay only the taxes that are legally due, requires tax code knowledge that is specific to this industry and your specific tax classification within it.I am very glad that you are asking about using an attorney - as there usually is a huge temptation to do it all yourself and the internet makes it look soooo easy.  

With that in mind, I think that an Airbnb could be a plausible option as well.I listen to the BiggerPockets podcast as well as other podcasts that interest me during my night job as a janitor and I am excited to learn and so far I see this website/forum as a valuable resource to learn how I can best prepare myself to make wise investments and to be a good landowner, property manager, etc.

It's tenants that react like this that add some fun to being a landlord assuming of course you know what you are doing and are fully prepared for court.Make sure you document everything.

When I want to display calculations to someone I prepare a spreadsheet in Excel.  

I'm interested in doing a house hack on a duplex with an FHA loan as well and just want to be aware of everything involved with doing that so I'm more prepared.

And finally, any advice on what i should be doing now to prepare for the world of real estate?

And finally, any advice on what I should be doing now to prepare for the world of real estate?

Sorry, I'm sure they're out there, but haven't been able to find them.I realize that these are mostly questions for the specific bank/lender... but I'd like to be prepared as much as possible before their discovery meeting.

Hi guys, I'm new to the forums but have been listening to the BiggerPockets podcasts for the past few months in preparation for making my first investment property purchase.