I'd rather rent to a person with barely 3X the rent in income than somebody who's rich but going to treat me and the neighbors badly.

My first new construction barely valued out much more than my built cost, which trapped a bunch on cash into the property.  

At bare minimum, it should list everyone who is an authorized occupant, how much is the rent, how often is it paid, who owns the appliances, what (if any) pets are allowed, and my favorite question: "Are there any other written or verbal agreements of any kind between you and the owner/land lord?"  

You may also be required to have a registered agent for the LLC if it is a different state so do bare that in mind and do look into it before proceeding.You would not need a tax ID for the property if you are not getting an LLC as you as the individual would be the owner of it.Regardless of whether you go with an LLC or not, I highly agree with having a separate bank account for the property specifically to keep your transactions organized.

Yikes, I've looked at a few similar properties and some that were much worse where I barely made it past the living room before turning around!

I'm not wealthy by any means, but I can save money while living in Silicon Valley, if that means anything.The rest barely live at all.

You want to spend as little as possible on something that can barely be called an asset, as it will eventually depreciate to $0. 

If your Memphis properties appreciate in value then you can bite the bullet, lose money that results from your expenses and maybe the appreciation and depreciation on your taxes will earn a profits, but when you have low-income tenants and cannot raise the rents than you cannot earn a profit in Memphis.You will never get rich from buying properties and living of the cashflow from rental income because rental income barely keeps up with inflation.

It just leaves me thinking they had an opportunity to do more and they chose to do the bare minimum. 

We barely saw each other sometimes but when we did we knew the broader goal of financial freedom was what motivated both of us.