if there is appreciation, but you wouldn’t sell your current home tax free and buy a neighboring home to rent out, (There by raising your cost basis for additional depreciation and lower capital gains tax.) then it probably doesn’t make a good rental property. . 

Certainly nothing ground-breaking in terms of ideas here, however I'll be very hands on (and on site) during the process to make sure that every step of the way is executed to a high standard and very carefully.Once I've hopefully developed a successful track record and gained experience, my next goal would be to move on to commercial assets (think multi-family, industrial etc) so that I can leverage my existing investor network and real estate knowledge to raise 3rd party equity and take on bigger projects.

I'm born and raised in Houston and now work with a full service long-term rental management managing over 300 doors - all SF or MU (up to 4 unit).

If you are doing long term rentals and raising rents, you will have turnover of a significant number of tenants after their year of renting when you raise their rent.

I always bill back water/sewer/trash before raising rents. 

There are also ways to go about mindset shifts if that's a serious issue, but I don't know, it sounds like you've spent time with this property, you know all about it, and you have a bunch of other stuff going on in life.For instance, you decide not to raise rent all the way to market rate....This is probably a good move if you hate maintenance calls and your tenants know to handle some maintenance themselves because they are getting a bargain deal.

This raises a question because we had a lease agreement on file showing a rental amount of $2,000 per month."

Unless you were raised in or are from one, you have no idea.

Quote from @Miguel Del Mazo: Furnished Finder is definitely worth the costs despite the company continuing to raise their yearly price.

I wish you would have told us the year, it makes a huge difference.Anyway, everything you mention, plus 1) get a camera run on the sewer line, 2) make sure the Elec panel is newer and sized correctly (a lot of HIs will just say if it's functional or not) 3) Foundation ( is it slab or raised?)