I also learned that she made a habit of attending every real estate meetup, seminar, lecture and course, about any aspect of real estate, she could find, and had significantly more knowledge than the typical newbie, who if has any knowledge at all is all concentrated in one particular strategy.

Getting your real estate license is subjective debate and you definitely don't need your license at all (you have to disclose you are a realtor on mail pieces, certain regulations to follow, etc), but it was a NO BRAINER for me personally.I STRONGLY believe in "7 Habits of Highly Successful People" habit "start with the end in mind", then work yourself backward.

I plan to invest this capital in creating a habitable 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom kitchen downstairs and then proceed with a refinancing strategy.I'd love to connect with you to expand my real estate investment network and gain insights from your wealth of experience and advice.

I dont have personal relationships with my tenants and I am able to focus on the business side of the investment, while still being a caring landlord and taking care of them, as we all should.I think it would be fair to give them some lead time on the rent raise. 2 months before lease expiration; Explain to them that you really want them to stay and you hope they will, but taxes jumped, and you will need to raise rents for the upcoming lease renewal.You want to give them time to decide if they can afford it or if they want to look for another option.Chances are they will stick around with no harm done.Good luck!!

The property (unit the tenant will occupy) must meet basic habitability standards and go through an inspection at the inception of the tenancy as well as annually. 

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

Not that I think you are trying to get away with anything, but what's the harm in disclosing? 

They must approve the habitability of your rental before payments start.During the tenancy, section 8 also conducts annual inspections to make sure that habitability is maintained.  

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.