I always get their insurance and licenses to be sure they are up to date. 

Etc.A relatively inexpensive book like Dave Van Horn's Note Investing book could get you up to speed very quickly. 

@Sammie Baker - if you're using conventional financing (FNMA/FHLMC) you are required to have a 6mo seasoning period between acquisition date (deed) and the new note date (closing). 

The previous owner mostly took care of the outside, but the interior is pretty dated and there are a lot of little things to do.

Go talk to realtors, analyze 100 deals off the MLS,talk to PMs about maintenance costs you can definitely get upto speed quickly and find a decent deal if your determined.

On 3 separate occasions, the appraiser gave me their word that I would have the appraisal back by a selected date.

You can also use less then 2 years SE if the previous year is enough and your year to date profit and loss is not less or declining from the previous year. 

In the letter, we tell the tenant who to make checks payable to, where to deliver the payments to, the date the rents are due and date the rent is late.In the introduction letter we tell tenants we intend to improve the property and we tell tenants that we want them to contact us and report every maintenance issue asap.As for taking over any property, there are always a hundred improvements that can be done within the first few months.

I won the case, but it took exactly 5 years to settle, EXACTLY, from the date the lawsuit was filed and I did not win money in court.

I have been doing this for 20 years and honestly to say you can raise rents ~110% a whole year from now where things are happening at lightning speed, most of which we have zero control over seems a bit idealistic to me.