Laywer, online or any other options.

I think I've been signed up for a while and searched questions here and there, but I wanted to formally introduce myself in an effort to better connect with everyone online and offline.

My question is; is this a common practice?

If you're looking at turning a primary residence into a rental, there's the additional advantage of having a community "on the ground" at your unit.As an example, our unit in Burbank, CA, is in a condo community, and the online community forum has helped us greatly: when another owner rented to a bad tenant, we knew about it before our tenant complained and could handle the situation proactively.

Keep everything accessible online (cloud storage, google docs, email account, tablet always on you, whatever..), write down things as soon as your think of it (I use OneNote on my microsoft phone, or there are plent of free apps..), and set calendar reminders as soon as the thought is in your mind.These processes have saved me in both my 9-5 and my real estate investments!

I do go to realtors for expired listings but i rather look at them myself sometimes and theres a way to find a near expired listing online...

I have been looking at Dallas recently because I like the economy, price levels, and I have family in the area.I stumbled across BP online about a year ago and have been loving the content quietly.

Transferring a property to an LLC is common practice now a days and doesn't effect their rights given in the mortgage at all.

And, James, thanks for that tip - I'll definitely keep that in mind as I move forward.Also, I definitely plan to honor the current lease agreement, I just wondered how to approach raising the rent when the lease was up, or how I can check the background of the current tenants so I know whether they are reliable.Here are some of the other numbers that I was able to track down today:Insurance: $692/year through one bank that I talked toTaxes: 567.76/year for 2013Using these numbers and an online mortgage calculator I came up with $262 for the monthly mortgage payment for a conventional loan.

I think it's a good practice for everything anyway!