I did all the painting, and I moved in furniture for staging.

We are still in the planning stages of our buy and hold biz.

From the comments I think I have an elementary knowledge in terms of overview of the industry but it would be probably be useful to buy some resources (ordered Joe Fairless's book) to go deeper in understanding deal analyses and raising funds.

The main reason I would not is that they are probably very transient at this stage of life, so you could end up chasing your tail trying to get rent. 

I was planning on making my current house a rental property and moving to a house with a better school zone (kid will start Elementary next school year) in the near future.

If you are anything like me at this stage, maybe this article will help you pinpoint which direction you might want to go! 

The reason I didn't do anything with it was because I wasn't sure how to determine which stage of the process they were in (behind, pre, foreclosure, RIO...) and who to approach at the various stages.Also it seems like investors fall in to one of two categories: mom and pop small-scale (such as myself... thus far) and mega-investors managing thousands of leads, using VAs and spending tens of thousands on marketing. 

I am in the final stages of purchasing my first investment property.

If there is anyone that has gone through this stage and wants to give their two cents, I am all ears. 

My business partner and I are in the beginning stages of our adventure.