Right now sounds like she delayed to ensure renewal.

Don't skip the learning phase though, you have a great opportunity and if you can ensure you are knowledgeable and understand what you are jumping in to before you actually do it, then you will greatly increase your chance of success. 

Kareem, We are an REI firm in Scottsdale and do anywhere from 2-4 deals a week wholesale and we have realtors that use our data and ringless voicemail to get interested sellers to call them, marketing is a relentless task but eventually you will build your pipeline.Anyway good luck!

Average is a dirty word in modeling….. and you can’t model using only the average.Take a look at your data and decide what distribution each variable should follow.

What things can I do now to ensure that we are hitting the ground running on this rental property?

I'd be happy to share more data and help with your search.

Make sure that you are well capitalized and the you are being conservative in your underwriting (by conservative, I mean actually looking at historical data to back you assumptions).

As a landlord, my biggest expense is vacancy and communicating to tenants that your rate is going to go up every year regardless of what other units are charging is a great way to ensure they don't stay very long.  

There may be other discussion about it but both of those episodes are share data explaining why a recession is coming.

@Mark Skaff Here are the basic tools and resources you need to get you started:Listing Platforms:Realnex.com - I useCostar.com - I useCatalyst.com - I useBrevitas,com - I useCrexi.com - I useLoopnet.com - I do not useCRM, customer relationship management options, you only need one:Realnex - I useClientlookApto - SalesforceDigsyMarketing package creator, you only need one:Buildout - I useRealnex - I useMicrosoft PublisherAdobe InDesignMarket and financial analysis - advanced tool:STBD - Site-To-Do-Business (Demographic and Psychographic) - I useCostar.com - Rent and sold comp and market analysis data - I useThe Analyst Pro - Online Financial Analysis toolHP10bii calculatorFuel.com - financial analysis toolRPR Commercial - I useNot all these are mandatory and there are many more that compete with the above, these are ones I've used in the past or currently using now.The key is that you have a listing platform outside the MLS, a CRM to track you contacts, clients, properties and deals, a way to create a stunning marketing package, and market and financial analysis tools.