These tenants will be living there while someone else pays the bills, which means they may not do a good job of caring for the home.

Just be careful.

If you're low on funds, you may want to look into bird dogging (and eventually wholesaling) by finding deals for other real estate investors.

Hiring a good management company would take care of doing most of the necessary work everyday but you would have to manage them to verify they are doing what they ought to do. 

I just want to make sure you are aware of that so it doesn't sneak up on you.Then you will want to have some sort of lawn care and general maintenance budget for tenant "uh-ohs" of about 5% of rent which is another $66.25/month.

As for lessons, you need to be more careful with tenant screening.

We really don't care about getting the money as much as getting them out.

I'm thinking of asking for a co-signer, who will have to pay for a credit check to qualify.One more tidbit: They said when I call for rental history that his friend and his dog are not on his current lease.

I have a pretty good job here and a rent controlled 1-bedroom apartment in which I pay a small fraction of of what my new neighbors are paying so I want to be careful about giving that up.I really want to put this 30k to work for me, but as Alexander pointed out I shouldn't be too hasty.

Be very careful especially on your first deal.