I'm willing to pay a little more for a plumber that answers my phone call, does a reliable job, and owns up to mistakes.

Advertising, screening etc.

I definitely agree that a discussion with the family member and accountant may be the best place to start (and probably my very next phone call)!

At the very least you should be able to find a phone numbe for the property tax affice.

I am looking for information re screening applicants as it applies to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. 

@Cody Furman first of all let the residents know that there is a new sheriff in the town with a welcome letter and explain the everything you can in that letter and then deploy some cloud based software like Buildium to track your tenants and the rent and charge late fee and give them vacation notices on timely manner and evicted the bad ones and do not raise the rents until you are stabilized and do the screening to fill in vacancy otherwise you will be in big trouble if bring in bad ones.Charge application fee of at least $35 per couple and they will pay and use that for screening.

Getting a special and start off with low down payment is not as good as you think but if the  the location is important as a consideration, the demand for what you buy property and tenant screening, it's in  growth area, is it located within a diverse area, the parking that is available, do you have deep enough pocket if funds are needed, Do nearby amenities exist, is there any nearby retail stores and what are they and does it fit your ideal tenant, and are there any existing tenants. 

So Dan, I got on the phone and found a local attorney that specializes in real estate law.

You need to shop around for your local landlords. try your cities HUD office. they usually have a nice long free list of landlords with their names and phone numbers to call.

If you want to chat on the phone, send me a message and I'll give you my cell #.Mark