A call to a town building department, or an internet search should answer that for you.2) I have found The Journal of Light Construction to be an excellent source of information.

Hopefully you were able to verify the new job is legit as well as excellent previous landlord reference. 

Pulling a HELOC is also an excellent strategy to obtain cash, in fact many investors use this, however, if you do decide to go down this route you need to run your numbers religiously.

Is there any software that makes it nice and pretty rather than just an excel sheet?

All the units need TLC and updates throughout which will bring in excellent tenants and demanding rents.

Overall, after the short and sweet emails are sent out to non-selected applicants, how do you respond if they ask why there were not chosen?

Investing in real estate is an excellent idea.

I go to the website, select the Tenant, and create a New Charge.

With what I know now, I believe the best option would be to do a BRRR (with the exception that the property already has an assumable mortgage in place) as the rental income would be excellent (I believe it would currently bring$2500/month and will only get better.

@Jimmy Johnson I would select a market that you have the most familiarity with.