To further my goals, i've built a good sized fund and am currently pursuing my real estate license.

Another thing I am interested in is learning more about being a landlord and screening tenants and renting the units myself rather than using a management company.

We do use a property manager for some that are too far right now for us to deal with, but they take almost as much time and effort as the ones that I self-manage, so I'll take those over when I have the time to build the proper systems there and have time to screen the tenants myself.If I found secure investments that could substitute for the income from our rentals without the hassle of dealing with tenants, I would consider it, but it's difficult in this low-rate environment.  

I work primarily on the south side of the city, but we can do work throughout the city and also the northwest Indiana area, (travel will depend on the size of the job).

But I am getting nervous about the screening process.

It's not a one-size-fits-all situation.  

I would think 5k or 10k would be plenty, though it will depend on house size, age of roof, windows, sewer, AC, Furnace, electrical, plumbing. 

We just took off the old sheet material and underlayment and even after more than 15 years there was only one area about 1 foot square in size that had some wood rotting.  

My husband and I are screening a tenant and I need some outside opinions.

I build new construction duplexs, althought at a much lower size then yours (1800-2450ft2).