We can also understand a div stock will not need a roof or have any ongoing turnover costs, vacancies, evictions, vandalism, code violations, insurance claims, sewer lines, landscaping blah, blah blah.Fortunately we can compare 5 years div stocks to 5 years random sfr returns and your friends blog conclusions are not debatable.

I am making that decision because I don't want an old duplex that I would possibly require repairs.

You are not trying to draft an agreement, simply communicating to your attorney what you have agreed on.Submit to your attorney, he/she will come up with further points that need discussion/decisionsDiscuss again, record your decisions and resubmit to attorneyRepeat until the attorney has drafted an operating agreement that you both agree on (you can see that extensive discussion between the partners will save you in attorney costs)Open a bank account (free or close to it) using the newly formed LLC certificate and operating agreementNow you have a functioning company. 

Also, I haven't met the right people who can help me make informed decisions when purchasing my first few..

Also my insurance agent says it's harder for him to get insurance from good companies on old older homes, unless the electrical, roof, and plumbing and have been updated. 

I also have sewer & water line insurance provided by DEP via American Water Resources (AWR) but every time I call them, they say there has to be a clog and all they will take care of will be fixing the clog.

I currently do not have a CPA as I only own one rental property I just want to have a working knowledge of the area to make better-informed decisions on future sales of properties.Thank everyone for their time and support!

I could see lots of folks with limited equity and no flood insurance on their house walking away from the mortgage before spending the tens of thousands of dollars to fix flood damage.

I enforce my tenants purchase renter insurance.

I might suggest offering a lower rent than what they pay month to month as an enticement for going long term (and that could mean either offering a lower rent than what they pay now, or raise the rent if they want to pay month to month).All those little decisions you'll just have to feel out what works with your place and tenants.