Ie a property with 0 repairs required, then a house with small repairs, then a full remodel flip  that included adding and permitting new bathrooms, removal of walls, doors, windows etc etc. 

Ideally to really keep everything separate you'll want to just have your LLC, and not your name, on it and that'd likely require a novation or a new policy(full cost of title insurance paid again).

It's not a New Jersey thing, it's the IRC code. 5.7 Sfhttps://buildingcodetrainer.com/egress-window-requirements/

The price of the house ($1.4m) requires me to secure hard money lending to purchase. 

Does anyone have a maintenance record template that can be edited to fit my needs?

I understand if tenant doesn’t renew there will be some maintenance when vacant.

In NJ, for example, we rep a ton of landlords and require 3.5 months up front to rent which get you a better tenant and screening as we go through the NTN or rent spree (first month's rent, 1.5 security, 1 month realtor fee split between listing agent and rental agent).

The purchase decision only requires online thorough research, then try to buy in a 401k/ira so you don't have to pay taxes on the Dividends which can be large.

The goal of real estate investing is financial freedom.Financial freedom requires a rental income that:Increases faster than inflation: Unless rents increase faster than inflation, your true (inflation-adjusted) income will continuously decline, and your time off the daily worker treadmill will be short.

A couple of maintenance requests can knock out an entire year of cash flow for you.