Also good idea is to get a verification that they have their own workmen s comp insurance, so your not stuck if they get injured on your site, you simply ask them to have their insurance guy send you a certificate of insurance made out to you, for your address your having the work preformed at.

I have no idea where to start, but I am hard working and willing to do my best to make this dream a reality. 

Crap idea.  

We're hoping that we can manage to get tenants to turn over in the summer, where we can spend a couple of weeks down in DC combining a little vacation in the place with fixing things up and finding a new tenant).Of course I made some mistakes already, too, but I think I'll get away with them this time...So after getting my feet wet, I've been reading about REI, and we do have cash / equity (our primary home is just about paid off) to stuff with, so now I'm considering to get into it in a non-accidental way, and it seems more prudent to look at our local area (NH seacost), but it turns out I have little idea about the purchase/rental market here, and it doesn't seem all that easy to find out (in NoVA, at least, there's a very active market, while here prices seem to fluctuate wildly for no obvious (to me) reason.

Neil Roseman from LeadProbe is a great guy to talk to and probably can give you a good idea because he knows the city so well.

If they only read your title post, they too may think an LLC has magic tax beans.The idea that tax benefits exist simply by having an LLC is what I was emphasizing.  

Anyone done this before or have an idea? 

This gave tenant good idea of what was expected for them to do as per our move-in and move- out check list.

@Gualter Amarelo I think meeting in the office is a great idea.

I understand that the rules would help you determine if the property cash flowed and that the 2% one was used first, while the 50% was used more like a final factor (in the example).What doesn't make sense is why the property was deemed a bad idea, wouldn't the fact that the 50% rule gave 0 cash flow (rather than negative) mean that the investor would still be able to make money on loan pay down?