This also gives me time to collect some extra CapEx and/or repair money from the previous tenants as well as potentially use some of their security deposit for repairs that need to be done.

Hi Larry - Cozy is great for rent collection and tenant screening, Stessa is great for financials and accounting, and RentRedi and Buildium are more all in one solutions.

For your reference, I was going through this post. I started putting together a spreadsheet to perform a side by side comparison. However, this is over-whelmingly large number of service providers. Thought I should cr...

What is the best way for collecting rent with roommates when using Cozy? 

We currently own 5 properties (including our own, though it does have a rental carriage house), but three of them have both of our names on the mortgage, so collectively it looks like we have 8 mortgages.

If you're collecting $2,400; bare minimum 25% gets earmarked for expenses. 

Some people like to sell the theory that “just make tenant A collect from tenant B!”

Question is what lease agreement to use and should we collect first and last months rent?

The collect an upfront fee and never intend to fund the loan.

I agree, but as far as wanting to do the extra work in REI to affect the performance of your properties, for now that's great-  but at some point I think there's a chance you might come to appreciate the hassle free benefits of passively collecting those dividends a bit more.