You'll have plenty of rental candidates, but you need to be sure that their business is viable, properly funded and Amazon-proof. 

It wasn't until I brought the 2nd guy in that I found out that the roof wasn't done properly, the framing wasn't done properly, and some other things that caused some rework. 

use a credit card.

I was concerned that the seller wouldn’t repair it properly so my realtor suggested that we just take it off the purchase price.

Is it easy to get credit cards in Canada?

Additionally we have gotten ourselves in a bit of debt and could use the profits from the sale of the house to clean up our current finances (about 15k in credit card bills). 

Get the deals going first, build some equity and cash flow, set them up with proper insurance and umbrella insurance coverage, establish proper maintenance and property management, then look into structures, entities and strategies for asset protection.Here, a diagram to help you on this path:

If you were the licensed agent asking if you could offer $100 gift cards to people for bringing you a lead, I would caution you.

Set backs are not proper, one water meter serves both properties, and sewer for one runs under the other house.I know I'm in for something close to $50K in engineering and filing fees to do this, but my question is: is anyone familiar with engineering /architecture firms here that are pros as far as getting this done, ie, it's what they do? 

To name few features, you can connect your bank & credit card account(s) to QBO to automatically download the transactions daily, set up rules for any recurring charges, setup recurring transactions (ie invoices to tenants), sent out reminder (individual or batch), accept online payments (cc & bank) which can be tenant or landlord initiated, track multiple income sources (ie. flip, rental, wholesale), track individual properties, charge tenants for reimbursable expenses, track 1099 contractors (and e-file tax forms), and create a budget.